Semipalmated Plovers are small shorebirds with short necks, yellowish legs, brown backs, white underparts with a single brown or black band on their chests.
While rifling through my archives I came across some of my Semipalmated Plover photos that I took on the north beach at Fort De Soto County Park in 2008.
Among my favorite plovers to photograph when I lived in Florida were Semipalmated Plovers, I only saw them during their nonbreeding season where they spent time along the Gulf coast.
This morning I wanted to keep my post simple and how much more simple could this image of a Semipalmated Plover with its eye on me be?
These images of birds on the beach were taken at Fort De Soto County Park's north beach six years ago today on a beautiful morning.
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.
This photo of a Semipalmated Plover on the shore of the Gulf was purposely photographed so that the plover would be small in the frame
I photographed this Semipalmated Plover as it foraged along the Gulf of Mexico in Florida in 2008 while I laid flat on the wet sand getting soaked as the waves pushed onto the shore around the sand bar in the distance.
Some days I find myself missing Fort De Soto so much it hurts, the birds I found there and the entire experience of just being there. It is just such an amazing place, how could I not miss it?
Besides, to have gotten any lower than the Semipalmated Plover I would have had to have crawled down the burrow of one of those crabs
I like the ribbons of different shades of blue in this image and even though the Semipalmated Plover (Charadrius semipalmatus) is small in the frame it stands out well from its habitat.
Getting "Down & Dirty" is a way of being at eye level with your subject which brings the viewer into the bird's world and it can make the image feel more intimate too. Achieving those low angle perspectives can be quite messy and/or uncomfortable depending on the habitat.
When I photographed Semipalmated Plovers in Florida I found that if I got down to their level and laid still they would approach me very closely. That takes patience but the effort is well worth it.
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.
Be prepared to become addicted to birds. You will have withdrawals if you don't shoot often enough, your shutter button finger will develop a nervous twitch
Throughout the year you can see and photograph many different species of Plovers on Fort De Soto’s beaches, tidal lagoons and spartina marshes.