Sanderlings Fighting over Food

Sanderling

Thanksgiving morning, my son and I went out photographing and left the other kids at home preparing Thanksgiving dinner.  We left the house, the temperature was in the 30s and in the time it took us to reach Sachuest National Wildlife Refuge, the temperature was into the 50s.  Even with the wind blowing.  It was still comfortable.  The high tide was just receding and the waves were still crashing on the rocks along the Ocean Loop.  We did not see any deer and overhead, loons and gulls flew by.  I only saw one passerine.  However, there were some interesting photos.

We met a couple of birders at Sachuest and they told us there was a pair of horned grebes down at third beach.  We traveled down to third beach, no grebes, large amount of a variety of gulls and probably 100 sanderlings running up and down the shore.

Sanderling

I had laid down on the on the sand and was crawling closer to the berm so I could get a better picture of the standings.  I had not reached the berm when I was able to obtain some pictures of a pair of sanderlings fighting over a slipper shell crustacean.  Finally, one of the sanderlings won out.

Sanderlings Fighting over Food

Sanderlings Fighting over Food

One Sanderling winning the Food

As I keep saying be prepared.  You never know what you will see you find.  Understand the history of what you are photographing.  Especially for shorebirds get down to their level.

More Snowy Owl Photos

Snowy Owl in the Marsh Grass at Sachuest Saltmarsh

Finally, on Tuesday after almost a month, Doug and I went out birding. We went down to Sachuest National Wildlife Refuge in Middletown Rhode Island hopefully to see the barn owl and the snowy owls.

The snowy owl was very easy to find it was sitting in the marsh grass at the Sachuest Saltmarsh located at Third Beach. The snowy owl was taken life easy and intermittently preening giving me some interesting shots including some great wing stretches.
Because of the location of the snowy owl and the sun all the pictures were side-lit from the left..

Snowy owl fluffing its feathers

Snowy owl preening

Snowy owl preening

Snowy owl looking up during preening

Snowy owl preening

Snowy owl started to stretch its wings

Snowy all what a great wing stretch

Snowy owl preening

Later we traveled up to the main portion of the refuge and after talking to one of the volunteers and the refuge visitor center we traveled out to where the barn owls have been seen. As with looking for any creature in the wild, nothing is ever promised are guaranteed. Yes we struck out. We observed the Northern Harrier and a good number of different sea ducks.

Well, even though there was no barn owl it was great getting out with Doug again and we had a good time in the great outdoors.

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Sanderlings and Slipper Shells at Third Beach Middletown Rhode Island

In an earlier blog I talked about the dunlins and the gulls at Gooseberry feeding on slipper shells. I was down at Third Beach in Middletown Rhode Island where the Sanderlings were running up and down the beach feeding. I sat down on the sand with my tripod between my legs and photographed the activities of the Sanderlings. When a sanderling would find a slipper shell with the gastropod inside it, it would grab it and start running to a clear area on this beach so it could start eating, a number of times another sanderling would start chasing the sanderling that had the slipper shell to try to get it away from so it could eat the meat itself. One of the series of events that I documented was when one sanderling was starting to eat from the slipper shell and another sanderling was just watching, a third sanderling started running up, then at one point all three were feeding from the slipper shell until finally the last sanderling to arrive drove all the other sanderlings away. Such as the events that go on all the time, you just have to observe and be patient.

Again, the slipper shells are furnishing the protein nourishment that these little birds need to help them survive.

My only problem that I had was other people.. I am sitting on the beach with a tripod and a big lens photographing when a couple that was walking down the beach toward me, the gentleman passed it back to me, but the woman walked almost on the shoreline and cause the sanderlings to fly. Thank God, they came back again. Then a father with two young sons allowed his sons to chase the birds that were right in front of me. Again the birds flew but came back after the people left. Some people have no manners!

Sachuest National Wildlife Refuge and Third Beach

Semipalmated Plover Preening

In my last blog, I told you about our encounter with the friendly juvenile cowbird.  Today I'm going to just share with you some of the other birds that we encountered during our trip to the Sachuest Marsh, Third Beach and Sachuest National Wildlife Refuge.  In fact, this is our first visit back down to Sachuest since the road was washed out during last year's hurricane in the refuge was closed until recently.

We listed five species of gulls, including a Bonaparte's Gull in breeding plumage, and a Laughing Gull in winter plumage.

Bonaparte's Gull

Laughing Gull

Shorebirds included Ruddy Turnstones, Semipalmated Plovers, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Sandelings, and a Baird's Sandpiper (but I did not get a picture of it).

Ruddy Turnstones Eating a Mussel

Sandeling Looking for Food

Semipalmated Plover and Reflection

Semipalmated Sandpiper Watching a Semipalmated Plover Bathing

There were numerous passerine's and I have included photographs of American Goldfinch and a House Finch.

American Goldfinch in Thistle

House Finch, Eating a Berry

Red-breasted Merganser Shaking off after a Dive

We saw in the distance mainly hidden in the grass a six point buck in velvet.  When rutting begins, that maybe great opportunities to obtain photographs of bucks fighting.

Common Tern - Sterna hirundo

Obtaining pictures of terns in flight and diving for food for me has not been easy.  On my last birding expedition.  There were a number of common terns fishing just off the beach at Third Beach in Middletown, Rhode Island.  I first observed their flight pattern .  Utilizing my Nikon D800, and my Nikkor 500 F/4 lens set on a Jobu gimbal mount on my Redged tripod, I pre-focused my lens and soon as I had a tern in focus, I would bump focus, utilizing the cameras back focusing button, and continuous autofocus I would start photographing.  Although I caught the tern going into the water and coming out of the water, I did not photograph the tern catching any fish.