Friday, May 20, 2011

Delaware & Chesapeake Bays


Just got back from a several day trip to the Delaware and Chesapeake Bay areas to photograph avian migrants. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate for photography. Witnessing the massive arrival of shorebirds still made the trip special. Our goal was see and possibly photograph Red Knots. We observed primarily Dunlins, Turnstones and Sanderlings as seen in the above and below images. These were all captured at Slaughter Beach in Delaware.

We saw very few Red Knots amongst all the migrant shorebirds. Getting these two flying was lucky. They were also challenging images to capture. Like most shore birds, they fly so fast that so tracking them off at a distance was necessary and using shutter speeds of 1/2500 or 1/3000 was needed for in focus images.


We also traveled to two of my favorite national wildlife refuges. The below images of a Blue Grosbeak and Eastern Kingbird were taken in Bombay Hook NWR.


The Black Skimmers and Semipalmated Plover images were captured in Chincoteague NWR. I chose to post the Skimmers due to the alignment of the birds and the Plover due to the reflection.


Blue Skies.

7 comments:

Pat Ulrich said...

Awesome shots, Ken! Such beautiful colors on the shorebirds. I love the image of the synchronized skimmers as well -- you couldn't ask for a more beautiful composition! Great stuff!

Elaine said...

Beautiful!! The Skimmer shot is fantastic!

Bob Pelkey said...

It's a challenge chasing birds, indeed. Interesting video link.

Peggy said...

You mastered the challenge! Great images under difficult circumstances. Love the skimmers!

Coy Hill said...

Awesome photos as always Ken! Your work is always second to none.

Jose's World said...

Like the image of the twin skimmers the best.

Willard said...

Amazing shots, Ken. I especially like how you captured the skimmers aligned like that. I also second Coy's comment.