A short study of an old friend
I’m not sure if it’s the attractive color scheme, the way they move through water or something more ethereal that draws me to the avocet. This is a bird that I am endlessly curious about and it steals time from other shorebirds whenever I cross ones path. Last weekend at Frank Lake was no different.
Spring at this wetland just east of High River has a myriad of summer residents settling in and migrating travelers on their way north. This visit along the shoreline counted ibis, night herons, cormorants, killdeer and more fly by as the evening shadows slowly grew. I photographed many of them but none as often as the avocets.
Most of these were paired up and the couples swam together or high stepped in the shallows near one another while they fished. I saw two sets skirmish over territory briefly. However most just ambled along undisturbed – company to one another and disinterested in much else.
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Hawaiian Wildlife: A Sanderling Shorebird
While walking along a few different beaches during our time in Kaua’i I met up with Sanderling shorebirds. Their white plumage provides a significant contrast to the sand and rocky shorelines they frequent. I learned their name in Hawaiian is huna kai which means sea foam. The manner in which they run back and forth with the foamy edge of the waves rolling up on land makes the name seem appropriate.
This bird was on the eastern edge of Ke’e Beach feeding in the small tidal pools dotting a flat mound of rock on the beach. I photographed for a few minutes while it danced around the water and picked at the unseen creatures in the pools.
When it seemed to become more curious in me and less interested in the rising water. The foam caught the feet a couple of times so I decided it was time to go. Here is one of the last where the bird flew up from the water racing over to an open spot to fish again.
Christopher Martin Photography 