Running back and forth with the waves, rummaging through seaside debris searching for food, or even just sitting in a group asleep with their heads tucked in and a leg pulled up, shorebirds are fascinating. My favorite tactic for photographing shorebirds is to go out just before dawn in winter to a shorebird staging area, where the birds gather to fatten up before continuing on their long migrations. When I travel to the West Coast, I almost always visit my special shorebird spot a tiny sand spit protruding into a bay near where I used to live. Though the birds there are more suspicious than the shorebirds at public beaches, the variety of species and the numbers are better. I always take as much time as necessary and stalk carefully in order to get close enough to take the kind of pictures I'm after.
Shorebirds are among the most photogenic of birds.
This marbled godwit balances on one leg, with its head tucked in, for a short nap. You see the outlines of hundreds of shorebirds along the sand spit. A frosty chill makes you shudder deeply, but you do your best to keep still. Nothing you can do, though, masks the steam from your breath as you exhale. Lying down with your camera and telephoto lens thrust out before you on top of a beanbag, you move forward, less than six inches at a time.