‘Southward Bound’ – Part 2. A Shorebird photo album.

My 2019 fall shorebird photography season was a pretty decent one for me, by which I mean that I had a couple of good occasions when the necessary elements came together. Namely, decent lighting conditions (bright morning sun or bright overcast), available time (i.e. a free weekend or vacation) and of course, the stars of the show – the shorebirds – appearing in sufficient numbers!

The first decent shooting session I had took place in early August when I checked out some sloughs east of Calgary. While I didn’t find too many migrants coming down from the arctic breeding grounds, I did find some local breeders and their 2019 offspring, such as the Black-necked Stilt:

Spotted Sandpiper, both adult:

And juvenile:

Some rather flighty Yellowlegs:

And a number of American Avocets just starting to molt out of their lovely red neck (no pun intended!) plumage:

A nice finale to the morning was parking by a marsh and scanning the distance for sandpipers, only to find no less than six (!) young Soras come out of the reeds immediately in front of me and forage away without a care in the world. Quite a change from their normal skulky habits!

A few weeks later, on a cold and rainy weekend, I took a chance and headed down to Frank Lake (an hour or so away) in the hopes conditions might be a little drier – and they were! Bright overcast with occasional drizzle – perfect for lovely soft and subtly-toned images. The migrant shorebirds were much more in evidence now with good numbers of the expected species, no doubt enticed by the low water levels and mudflats rich in food sources. These mudflats weren’t too moist which gave me a great opportunity to get down nice and low in the mud and shoot the peeps at their eye-level – my favourite angle!

Semi-palmated Sandpipers were the most numerous ‘peeps’:

Followed by Least Sandpipers:

With just the one Pectoral Sandpiper that I could spy:

A number of Killdeer:

A cheeky little Semi-palmated Plover, probably wondering what the big lump in the mud was, came right up to me and introduced itself:

Which I found quite surprising as usually these are the most skittish birds on the flats:

When I turned my attention to a second adjacent I was rewarded with a number of other birds such as the Black-necked Stilt:

Some American Avocets, now almost molted into their less colourful non-breeding plumage:

A Yellowlegs:

A lone Stilt Sandpiper:

As well as a Blue-winged Teal that landed in front of me:

And a lovely pair of Short-billed Dowitchers still showing a deal of their breeding plumage:

Rounding out the morning were some young American Coots exploring the marsh:

And a handsome young American White Pelican:

Just a few short week later in the second half of August, I was camping with my family in the Brooks area and managed to find a few sloughs that had not yet dried up and had attracted another good selection of migrant shorebirds.

This time the weather was much more ‘summer-like’ with generally early morning clouds and bright early sunlight, and so I made a few pre-breakfast outings to once again crawl along in the mud and get some low point-of-view shots. The first birds to ‘greet’ me were a pair of yappy Willets:

That proceeded to sound their alarm calls:

Until they had had enough of me and flew off to a nearby slough:

The remaining shorebirds were happily far more accommodating and I was able to get some some close views of a brilliant white American Avocet:

Which was hanging around with several Black-necked Stilts:

A new ‘peep’ for me for this trip was the Baird’s Sandpiper of which there were at least a dozen:

Only out-numbered by Semi-palmated Sandpipers:

Which had a handful of Least Sandpipers mixed in with their flock:

Some Semi-palmated Plovers maintained their distance from me initially:

But gradually they moved closer, still keeping an eye on me:

Until before long they were running along in front of me only a few feet away:

And then I spied a slight larger and plumper ‘peep’ that I was soon able to ID as a Sanderling – another new one for the season!:

Finally, just as I was about to head off to re-join the family, a gorgeous Stilt Sandpiper strode into view and I was able to get my best looks yet at this beauty:

Overall, a pretty satisfying fall migrant season for me, and one that certainly whet my appetite to make a trip up to the Arctic in June to see if I can’t see these birds – and many others – on their breeding grounds in their fancy breeding plumage!