Avocets in the salt ponds, Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge

Another treat of my July 2016 trip was taking a morning to catch the sunrise at Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge. This is a hotspot for large flocks of stilts and avocets, which are the birds that initially pulled me into photography over a decade ago.

I find avocets to be so elegant in how they look and move, and they’re a rarity to find back home in Massachusetts. The light wasn’t great by the time I made it around to the salt ponds, but I did appreciate that a few avocets wandered toward my position along the shoreline to offer a reflection in the quiescent water.

Curious American avocet, Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge

The travel itinerary of my 2016 trip to California include a few nights in the South Bay, which meant I was in a great position to look for American avocets. In my opinion, these are by far the most elegant shorebird species, and I greatly miss having the chance to find them here in the Northeast. They're especially photogenic in their breeding colors, and it was a treat to encounter salt ponds filled with them at Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge. This location was one of my early favorites on San Francisco Bay, and I had a handful of spectacular trips there when I was learning the ropes of shorebird photography a decade ago. The park can be a little tough for eye-level photography since the trails are on elevated dikes around the ponds, but on this day the water level was down far enough that I was able to get low in the mud at a few places. This curious avocet waded fairly close to where I was set up, and the old degrading pilings were an interesting setting to contrast the elegance of the bird.

Shared with Wild Bird Wednesday -- follow the link to see this week's posts.