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danielusescanon
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Western Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper

I was at the Copper River Shorebird Festival and had been out to Hartney Bay, but there the birds stayed far far away, which I believe was in part because young children were allowed to run around on the mud flats to play and because everybody else walked out there as well. Of course the birds were going to avoid the people there.

The next morning I walked down to the harbor and managed to climb down below the levy next to Odiak Slough and I was by myself. The tide was still out and I could see the large flocks of Western Sandpipers feeding further away from me, so I crouched down and stayed motionless to see what they would do. To my delight they started to swirl towards me and land and feed, each time getting closer and closer until I had birds less than twenty feet from me. I continued to shoot them as they came closer and started to focus on solitary birds in the flock as they looked for food. The birds continued to come ever closer and finally were running and flying past me to find food behind me. They flew so close I could swear they were brushing against my jacket.

And as they continued to move in mass past me I could smell them and they smelled like rotten fish - probably bad breath from eating all those small crustaceans! After they had completely passed I managed to stand but my legs were stiff from having crouched down all that while. But no one else had been there to scare the birds away! What an experience!

Taken 6 May 2018 near Odiak Slough, Cordova, Alaska.

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Taken on: May 8, 2018
Tags: Everybody's photos tagged with wild wild Everybody's photos tagged with migration migration Everybody's photos tagged with Cordova Cordova more » Everybody's photos tagged with Alaska Alaska Everybody's photos tagged with Western Sandpiper Western Sandpiper Everybody's photos tagged with Calidris mauri Calidris mauri Everybody's photos tagged with Charadriformes Charadriformes Everybody's photos tagged with Scolopacidae Scolopacidae Everybody's photos tagged with feeding feeding Everybody's photos tagged with closeup closeup Everybody's photos tagged with breeding breeding Everybody's photos tagged with plumage plumage « less
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Camera: Canon EOS 7D Mark II, f/7.1, 1/2500 sec, 400mm, ISO 1000 (more info) (hide info)
Camera: Canon EOS 7D Mark II
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure Time: 1/2500 sec
Focal Length: 400mm
ISO: 1000
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program: Manual
Exposure Mode: Manual
Metering Mode: Multi-segment
White Balance: Auto
Color Space: Uncalibrated
Software: Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 Macintosh
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