Red Knots Galore!

In the half dozen or more times I have visited Gray's Harbor, near Westport, WA during the spring shorebird migration, I have never observed or photographed a Red Knot. So while I don't usually have target birds when I visit an area, I was determined this year to find and photograph this species because it is one of the few remaining shorebirds that is missing from my bird image library.

I arrived at one of the better locations for shorebirds - Bottle Beach - about 2 hours before high tide. Migration was apparently mostly over for the year as my May 13 arrival date was on the late side. As I arrived at the beach, there was a couple of birders sitting on some driftwood and I engaged them in conversation for a few minutes. They, too, were looking specifically for Red Knot and had not seen any from their vantage point. There was a photographer positioned out near the water's edge near a series of old pilings that was a favorite site for taking shorebird images. I walked to the east of him about a hundred yards before positioning myself to view the shorebirds that were feeding mostly along the water/shoreline interface. SUCCESS!! Scattered amongst the numerous flocks of shorebirds - mostly Dunlins and Western Sandpipers - were literally hundreds of Red Knots. In the ensuing 90 minutes or so, I proceeded to fill the entire 8GB flash card in my camera with shorebird images, focusing mostly on Red Knots. Of course, in my haste to get out on to the beach, I had forgotten to take extra cards with me! Here are some of the results. The Red Knots pretty much stand out in a crowd - sitting or flying as you can see in the following shots. I was also fortunate enough to get images of a banded/tagged Red Knot that had been captured about 3-4 years previously in Baja California.

The Black-bellied Plovers in their tuxedo-like breeding plumage are even easier to spot.This Dunlin is not quite in full breeding plumage yet!Western Sandpipers are among my favorites, especially when they decide to rest for a while.In Montana, almost all of the Dowitchers we see are Long-billed. But the Gray's harbor shorebird migration provides the opportunity to view both Long- and Short-billed Dowitchers, although the latter, such as the following, predominate. The shorebird migration thru this area is one of of those great spectacles of nature that I never tire of watching. I shall return to Bottle Beach!