At Bolivar Flats in Texas a couple of months ago, we spent lots of time beach panning (my favorite way to photograph shore birds). There were a few American Golden Plovers foraging along the beach as we lay on the sand with our 800mm lenses. I first (and last) saw an American Golden Plover on a nest outside of Churchill, Canada about 6 years ago so it was very special to me to watch them. When I first started photographing this bird early one morning, it was fidgeting in the water, shaking its feathers and flapping its wings. At one point it flapped so much that it rose out of the water. I’m not sure what that was all about but it was certainly entertaining. This particular pose reminded me of angel wings as it rose up out of the water a few inches before settling back down again.