As many of you know, my family has spent portions of every summer at the beach, specifically the Hamptons. I love to spend time there in the winter for several reasons. First, no one is there so it is very peaceful, void of the hullabaloo associated with the summer rush. Second, there are great opportunities for shore bird photography. Unfortunately this year I did not get out there in January or February which is prime time for wintering shore birds. However this weekend I decided to venture out east to mostly visit with my parents and help them with some things around the house. This winter has been particularly bad out east and some basic maintenance was in order, so in comes the oldest of the family caretakers. 😉 I ventured out on Friday morning with minimal expectations for finding good birds to photograph. Given that it was already March, I suspected that the wintering birds had already left the area and that I was too early for any of the spring and summer species that call the area home. As I expected, I was right, not much to photograph. And with the snow all but melted from our recent heat wave, the area was a mess, devoid of any great photo opportunities, or so I thought.

After driving around for some time I came across this sole Killdeer in a hay field.

It was interesting to watch this little guy. There was no water around where he was foraging and there was a massive construction project with a pile driver smashing piles right across the street. It was so noisy I was surprised that the bird would even be in this area let alone allow me to get close enough to take these pictures and watch him for an hour.

I have to admit that I knew when I was making these images that I would use them for nothing other than this blog. The busy background kills the images for my taste. I prefer a minimalist background and a subject that pops from the page. However, as I often do, I used this time to practice my skills and learn biology. You can read as many books as you like about animal behavior and bird behavior in particular, but nothing beats sitting and watching first hand. I also enjoy using my gear. The sound of a shutter clicking usually gets my creative juices going which leads to other things! Maybe it helped me unearth some other images that will make their way on the blog this week?

Images captured by D3x, 600 VRII wTC-2.0E III on Lexar UDMA digital film