Piping Plovers are small, pale shorebirds with yellow legs, creamy white chests and a single dark band at the throat.
Taking photographs of shorebirds at eye level was very fulfilling for me and the images that resulted from my down & dirty technique have always made me feel an intimate connection to the birds.
I took this image of the Piping Plover on a shell covered beach right after the sun came up when the light had that sweet golden tone to it
Six years ago this morning I was photographing birds at Fort De Soto County Park and I wanted to share a few images and memories of that day.
Today I am focusing on older posts that have shorebirds in them starting with Black-bellied Plovers.
Shorebirds; like this tiny Piping Plover I photographed on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, are the primary reason I became addicted to bird photography.
Piping Plovers are small, sparrow sized shorebirds that are endangered and threatened in most of their range primarily due to human disturbance on their nesting grounds.
This Piping Plover image reminds me to try to photograph birds in other than perfect light. Sidelit and backlit images can be spectacular so I don't like passing up taking the chance that I might just get a great shot despite what some photographers think of as bad light.
Piping Plovers nest in shallow scrapes in sand, gravel, salt flats or dunes which leaves their nests vulnerable to predators and in danger of being accidentally stepped on.
When I am out in the field I take a large amount of photos and there are times I don't get around to processing them until much later, these are two such images taken at Fort DeSoto, Florida in 2008.
Throughout the year you can see and photograph many different species of Plovers on Fort De Soto’s beaches, tidal lagoons and spartina marshes.
As a bird photographer it can some times be disheartening when you have great light, a wonderful setting and a beautiful specimen of a bird in front of your lens when you see the "jewelry" (bands) that some birds will be wearing.