juvenile, Spotted Sandpiper

Adding a new species to the Gallery always adds a shine to the day. The latest is Spotted Sandpiper which is a minor triumph. I have been 'chasing' this species for quite some time. They are particularly wary and the even the smallest hint of interest in taking a photograph would send them flying away with shrill calls of alarm. Compounding the problem further is that they frequent rocky rivers and pools (sewage treatment plants are a favourite) so getting close to them and getting a good angle to take pictures is doubly difficult. However the discovery of Thomas Pond has been a good omen and this week my luck changed for the better.

A first year bird has been hanging out on the main pond at Montlake Fill for the past week. My first attempts to photograph it brought the usual response which left me cursing under my breath as the bird disappeared over the cat-tails and out to feed on the lilypads which line the edges of Lake Washington. However as the week progressed, crawling around in both early morning and late afternoon among blackberry patches and other inhospitable vegetation started to produce results. At first I was content just go get the bird in the picture, no matter how small it was. But after each day the bird was more and more tolerant of my presence until today when it would walk past me, although somewhat hurriedly, as I lay on the ground underneath my hide.

Getting close enough to a Spotted Sandpiper is only half the battle. Unlike most all other waders, they feed by chasing insects, rapidly darting around in every direction trying to catch flies and other invertebrates at the edge of the water. Keeping the bird in the frame and in focus is extremely difficult. Fortunately the cost, if not the effort, of taking each picture with a digital camera is negligible so viewing shot after shot of the front half of the bird, followed by only the wing-tips, then focussing too close, then too far away and only rarely getting the bird fully in the picture and in focus is not too exasperating.

I am hoping that over the next few days the bird will decide that I pose little danger and so will eventually ignore me. If it stays in the area that is.