Your Call?
Have you ever seen a better photograph of a single shorebird than today’s featured image? If yes, which photo by whom?
What’s Up?
On Labor Day at Nickerson Beach I enjoyed one my best morning sessions ever at one of my favorite locations on the planet. Everything that I did turned out to be right. The day dawned partly cloudy with a north wind that switched to northeast as the clouds first increased and then thinned out. After that, the sun played peekaboo but for the most part I was working in cloudy bright conditions. I started by opting to walk down the west side of the remaining coastal flooding pond in hopes of getting some Canada Geese (!) in bright pink reflections. To do that, I needed to walk through about a foot of water. I used the 600 alone on the Robus RC-5570 Vantage Series 3 Carbon Fiber Tripod topped by a Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro. My plan, however, succeeded almost perfectly. As the wind was slightly east of north, some of the geese were angled slightly away; some were right on the borderline.
In that same wind, the skimmers were skimming away from the photographers on the west shore who had been trying unsuccessfully to create some backlit blurs. So, I headed for the eastern shore and created some nice blurs of my own. I chose a spot with a small flock of skimmers right in front of me and thus, had the birds flying right at me. As the morning brightened somewhat, I switched to sharp early on and made some wonderful images of both young and adult skimmers skimming in cloudy bright conditions. Once the flock departed (for unknown reasons), I decided to follow my nose. I grabbed the 600, left the tripod standing on the edge of the pond, and headed to the ocean handholding my big lens. As mentioned here previously, I have gotten stronger from working so much with the 400-800 that I am now able to handhold the 600 f/4 fairly easily and without much trepidation.
There were lots of American Oystercatchers working the surf line so I sat and worked an unbanded adult with one unbanded juvenile. At 7:39:13am I noticed a pissed-off-about-something oystercatcher running right at me from down the beach. I began firing as the bird took flight and created a 96-frame sequence as the bird flew just to my right. I clipped many frames but came up with a few stunners. I will be creating and sharing a new YouTube Picking My Keepers video soon.
Anyhoo, I was set up to do flight on the incoming skimmers and terns carrying fish at ISO 2500/1/3200 second wide open at f/4 when I spotted an obviously juvenile shorebird a bit down the beach. At a glimpse, I thought that it might be a juvenile Sanderling. I made two distant frames so that I could ID the bird by magnifying the image. I was thrilled to see the long wings, warm brown tones, streaked upper breast, and neatly edged upperparts feathers of a juvenile Baird’s Sandpiper, regular but uncommon on the East coast during fall migration. It was likely the same individual that I had seen and photographed poorly the day before.
As the young shorebird is not as bright as a tern or a skimmer, I immediately and instinctively slowed the shutter speed down one click to 1/2500 second. The bird continued heading east so I picked a spot below the berm with a clean stretch of low tide beach in front of me and sat down. The bird kept coming. I began firing as the bird moved to my right and then cut sharply to its right to head towards the Atlantic. I had two frames in the sequence where the Baird’s had both feet off the ground as it ran. Image #1 below was the better of the two because the running pose was a bit more dramatic and the head angle a tad more pleasing.
As I sat on the beach the magic kept happening with the help of the now fully northeast wind. When a young skimmer coming in from the ocean flew directly at me, I made another 96-frame (!) sequence and clipped only a few wingtips when the bird got really close. The whole experience was exhilarating. When I had a moment to catch my breath, I checked out some of the Baird’s images on the back of the camera and when I saw the running sequence with the bird square to the back of the camera, my exhilaration grew. My hunch to head down to the ocean turned into a thrilling and totally unexpected 37 minutes of action during which I created 1736 photographs. My total for the morning was 5072 still yet-to-be-edited images.
On Monday evening I drove out to Bayshore to have dinner at Fatfish on the Water in Bayshore with my younger daughter Alissa, her husband Ajiniyaz, their son Idris, and my two granddaughters, Samantha and Maya. Sam and Maya — both living in Brooklyn, are the children of my older daughter Jennifer and my son-in-law Erik. Jen and Erik live in Florida and were not able to fly up for the family dinner.
Today is Tuesday September 2, 2025. Though conditions were perfect, the Monday magic was not with me at Nickerson this morning. My best images were some takeoff shots of a molting Black-bellied Plover and a killer fly-by juvie American Oystercatcher. And I shot lots of bathing gull photos as well. Whatever you opt to do today, I hope that you chose to have fun and be happy.
If an item — a Delkin flash card or reader, a Levered-clamp FlexShooter Pro, or a Wimberley lens plate or low foot — for example, that is available from B&H and/or Bedfords, is also available in the BAA Online Store, it would be great, and greatly appreciated, if you would opt to purchase from us. We will match or beat any price. Please remember also to use my B&H affiliate links or to earn 3% cash back at Bedford by using the BIRDSASART discount code at checkout for your major gear purchases. Doing either often earns you free guides and/or discounts. And always earns my great appreciation.
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of photographers whom I see in the field and on BirdPhotographer’s.Net, are — out of ignorance — using the wrong gear, especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads. And the same is true in spades when ordering new camera bodies or lenses. My advice will often save you some serious money and may help you avoid making a seriously bad choice. Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. If you are desperate, you can try me on my cell at 863-221-2372. Please leave a message and shoot me a text if I do not pick up.
Don’t Just Shoot: Learn
If you are interested in changing your life and becoming a better photographer by joining me on the Extended IPT at Sebastian Inlet for Ospreys and more (SEPT 25 to NOV 24, 2025), in San Diego for Pacific-race Brown Pelicans and more (JAN 6 to FEB 2, 2026), or for Roseate Spoonbills at Stick Marsh (March 2026), please e-mail for dates, rates, terms, and additional information. Or shoot me a text to 863-221-2372. Some offerings include options for shared AirBnB lodging and meals. Ground transportation during your stay is a possibility at times.
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This image was created on 1 September 2025 by yours truly at Nickerson Beach, Lido Beach, Long Island, NY. Seating on damp sand I used the handheld (!) Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined by experience as detailed below. ISO 2500: 1/2500 sec. at f/4 (wide open) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was perfect. AWB at 9:27:55am on a cloudy morning. Wide/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the larger, inexplicably sharper high-res version. Image #1: Baird’s Sandpiper in fresh juvenal plumage running on clean sand beach |
Baird’s Sandpiper
There are five North American peep species. Peeps are small sandpiper species of the Calidris genus. Baird’s and White-rumped Sanpdiper are the only two peep species with long wings that protrude well beyond the end of their tails. Why the long wings? As they winter primarily in Argentina, they make far longer migratory flights than their three cousins: least, semipalmated, and western. Least and Western Sandpipers winter primarily in the southern US while all the semis make it down to northern South America. No Semipalmated Sandpipers winter in the US.
I recall struggling to find a Baird’s Sandpiper at the East Pond in the late 1970s. And I remember fondly the day that the late Thomas H Davis knelt down in the mud at the East Pond to draw the shape and long wings of Baird’s for me.
Three small dark specks were removed from the almost pristine beach.
Some folks love warblers, some love Osprey, some love owls, and some love all raptors. Shorebirds have long been my first love and are still my favorites.
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Shorebirds: Beautiful Beachcombers |
Shorebirds: Beautiful Beachcombers
Written for naturalists and birders, the text tells you everything you’ve always wanted to know about North America’s sandpipers, godwits, yellowlegs, phalaropes, plovers, avocets, stilts, and oystercatchers. Topics covered include identification and aging, shorebird behavior, their incredible migrations, feeding and diet, mating and breeding strategies, eggs, nests, and young, conservation efforts, and shorebirding tips. Also included are approximately 50 species accounts covering all of the regularly occurring North American shorebird species. With 70 of Arthur’s images and 26 more by some of the world’s best nature photographers, this book, at publication, contained the finest collection of shorebird photographs ever published in a single volume.
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
Nice capture,Artie! Well done.
Very nice one Artie!
Art: Absolutely lovely image! I’m glad to hear that you continue to have fun at Nickerson Beach!