2017—Lookin’ At Ya

I’ve been thinking a lot about sanderlings the past few days.  I fell in love with them on my first visit to Port Aransas in 2008 and still find their antics compelling.  On my most recent visit to Port A, I didn’t see a single sanderling on the beach…or anywhere there for that matter.  It  made me sad because there were very few shore birds of any kind on the beach.  I saw a single ruddy turnstone and a single willet. And just a handful of gulls and terns were in evidence.  I think there were more grackles on the beach than any other kind of bird.

Here’s a shot at a sanderling looking at me.  I took this on North Padre Island near Port Aransas in November while “beach panning,” laying flat on the beach.  I was hoping to do that in Port A last week but the weather was either too rainy or too windy and in any case, there were few birds to photograph on the beach.  I’m going to Florida next month to try Beach Panning again.  I hope I have better luck with finding birds to photograph.