Hatch year Spotted Sandpiper – Nikon D810, f8, 1/1250, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
I was looking through my older images and came across this one of a hatch year Spotted Sandpiper on some rocks at Bear River MBR. I realized when I saw the photo that I have shared images of adult and Spotted Sandpipers chicks that I have photographed in Utah but zero images of this particular age of this species.
Spotted Sandpiper adults still have spotted chests and bellies at this time of the year. This hatch year bird photographed on August 11, 2016 did not. There may still be sandpiper chicks running around in their fluffy juvenal plumage somewhere in northern Utah but this bird is in a plumage phase beyond that. This immature Spotted Sandpiper was in what I like to think of as its teen-aged plumage phase when I photographed it six years ago.
It is almost the middle of August and it dawned on me this morning that it won’t be long before the Spotted Sandpipers that hatched this year will be winging their way south on their first fall migration. I hope I see and photograph a few more Spotted Sandpipers before they go.
Life is good.
Mia
Click here to see more of my Spotted Sandpiper photos plus facts and information about this species.
Thank you (so much) for showing me a bird (and a stage) that I will not see for myself.
There are quite a few at Farmington Bay but I have not seen many at BRMBR, but that could be due to the tall foliage around the ponds this year.