Plover watching for worms, Pillar Point Harbor

A black-bellied plover in breeding plumage studies the surface of the sand for signs of a meal below. Image taken at Pillar Point Harbor on Half Moon Bay.

See more in my Plover's Gallery.

Got Him! A plover catches a worm at Pillar Point Harbor

A five-frame series of this black-bellied plover pulling a segmented worm from the exposed sand of Pillar Point Harbor on Half Moon Bay. I've watched black-bellied plovers pull many of these worms from the sand, but this is the first time my photographs left me reasonably (although not fully) satisfied. The birds will stalk around looking for a tip of the worm in the sand, then freeze, stare at it for a moment or two, and then strike.



As it starts to pull the worm from the ground, I often marvel at how long these critters are, and how many there must be just underfoot.



Most of the time the worm seems to pop out of the hole by the time the plover is back to full-height, but this particular meal was longer than expected.



The plover pulled, and pulled, and seemed to be preparing for the worm to come popping out of the sand. It's eye was half closed, and I can't help but wonder if it expected the worm to come flying at it like a rubber-band that snaps under tension.



For the last frame the plover pulled even further out of my plane of focus, but yet the worm still hung onto its burrow. Moments later the plover took its prize, and it was fun to watch it attempt to eat it like a long string of spaghetti.



View more images of these charismatic shorebirds in my Plovers Gallery.

Submitted to World Bird Wednesday -- Follow the link to see this week's posts!

Friendly black-bellied plover, Pillar Point Harbor

Two shots of a very friendly (or more accurately, tolerant) black-bellied plover. This is either a female in her summer colors or a male in transition plumage. The females don't get quite the striking all-black coloration of the males. After watching this bird go up and down a stretch of beach for a little while, I got into the prone position right in the middle of its foraging area. It didn't take long before it was getting quite close to me, and by the end, it was to the point where I couldn't fit the whole bird in the frame at once. I do so love it when birds give you their trust and you can spend some quality time in the sand with them. I (and my wonderful and understanding wife) didn't love the smell of my jacket so much during our hour-long trip home though ;-)



See more images of these shorebirds, including their winter plumage, in my Plovers Gallery.

Submitted to World Bird Wednesday -- Follow the week to check out this weeks posts!

Never turn your back on the ocean

A black-bellied plover, in the middle of transitioning to its summer plumage, along the edge of the water at Pillar Point Harbor.

Updated caption: As many of you have guessed, I intentionally left out the story of this picture to see what reactions it would get. The story is that yes, that is a real shark in the background. It was about a 2-3 foot long leopard shark, which is one of the most common sharks in the coastal areas of CA. It's a sleek, long-bodied shark with a beautiful spotted pattern that will often come into intertidal areas during high tides to feed. Unfortunately, this particular shark was not doing well. It was clearly very near the end of its life, and was getting rolled with the waves at the edge of the shoreline. I normally wouldn't photograph an animal in that condition, but when the plover I was following stopped in front of it I couldn't help but fire off a few shots of this unique composition. On our walk out of the harbor, we saw another related intertidal predator, which was in much better shape -- a bat ray was feeding on the newly covered sediments. It was really fun to watch its two fins break the surface as it flapped its "wings" and cruised along in the shallow water.

Transitional black-bellied plover, Pillar Point Harbor

A black-bellied plover that is almost to its full breeding plumage. They are such stunning birds in their summer patterns, and it's a pleasure to get to see them transition into that phase along the California coast. It's pretty cool to think too, that earlier this spring, they looked like this. I was hoping for nice high overcast clouds yesterday evening at Pillar Point, but instead we got nearly ground level fog which left my images a little drab. But anytime you get to be close to shorebirds is worth it in my book, and I tried to make the most of the gray-scale scene. Not all of the birds were as dark as this one yet, so I hope to head back in a week or two to try for some nicer light!

Black-bellied plover & shadow, Pillar Point Harbor

Two more shots of this very friendly black-bellied plover at Pillar Point Harbor on Half Moon Bay. As the sun was dropping lower in the sky, the shadows stretched longer, and really elongated the look of the lengthy legs of this shorebird.



Submitted to World Bird Wednesday -- Click the link to check out this weeks posts!

Black-bellied plover after sundown, Pillar Point Harbor

I took so many shots of this individual plover as we spent over an hour together on the beach at Pillar Point Harbor last month, and I have a lot more to edit and prepare for uploading. Before this experience I had always found black-bellied plovers to be rather skittish. However, this one was really successful at pulling up worms from the sand, and it seemed to be so focused on the task at hand that it could care less about the photographer tagging along behind.

Plover in the Spotlight, Pillar Point Harbor

I spent over an hour with this single black-bellied plover as it combed the shoreline looking for a late meal. We were along the edge of the water inside of the harbor, and eventually the sun sank low enough to be mostly blocked by the seawall behind me. This left us in a world of cool blue tones, except for a few rays of light that were still shining through from low-points in the wall. The plover was eyeing something up in the sand as it walked into one of these rays, which gave me a nice opportunity to capture it bathed in warm sunshine against the cool, shaded background.

Submitted to World Bird Wednesday -- click the link to see this week's submissions!

Prowling plover, Pillar Point Harbor

A black-bellied plover hunting for worms in the sand at Pillar Point Harbor on Half Moon Bay. There was surprisingly little in the way of birds along the shoreline on this particular evening, but I did manage to make a tentative friendship with this plover. After watching it pluck a number of worms from the sand before sunset, I was able to work my way in close and gain its trust. I followed it up and down the beach a number of times as it ran back and forth, and on a few occasions it came so close that I couldn't keep the whole bird in the frame. No complaints here though -- it's always a pleasure to have the chance to spend some quality time with a shorebird!

Running through the rain

These plovers are always surprisingly large to me, perhaps since I've most often seen the much smaller snowy and semipalmated plovers. This guy was hanging out with a handful of other shorebirds at Pillar Point Harbor. I have yet to get a really good shot of one of these, and while I was attempting to do that this one decided enough was enough, and he sprinted away. Well actually he sprinted right in front of my in order to get over to some rocks.