Boy i couldn’t wait for my Thanksgiving break. I don’t know about the rest of you but i was ready for it. I was very fortunate this year to be able to go down to Florida and meet up with my parents and some family friends and have a nice relaxing time. Despite the shortness of the break a lot got done. Dad and I were both getting tired of doing landscapes, so playing with the shorebirds at Ft. Myers was just what we needed. A rather large group of American Oystercatchers and Laughing Gulls caught our attention first. Neither were species i had in my files prior which goes the same for many of the species photographed at the beach. The Oystercatchers were funny in my opinion, they would hop forward and backward when a wave would come up. It reminded me of a flamingo race. Still can’t get over that orange in the bill.
This guy just showed exactly how i was feeling, tired and asleep. Early morning departures on vaca are just hard. Now i haven’t photographed shorebirds in some time with the exception of the Glacous Gulls up in Alaska and the California Gulls at Mono Lake, so getting back in the swing of things was a little challenging. Getting into position, not moving too much, watchin the subject all things i was sorry to say rusty on. Hey it happens, without regular practice and landscapes don’t require such skills. Thanksfully they birds were patient with us as you will see later on.
Images captured with D3, 600f4, TC-14e, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film