Female red-winged blackbird on cattails, Coyote Hills Regional Park

I'm fortunate to have a handful of lovely cattail marshes along my daily commute, and its been wonderful to see them surrounded by beautiful autumn foliage recently. I haven't had an opportunity to attempt to capture their beauty, but it's made me think of the many times I went out looking for birds in the wetlands around San Francisco Bay when I lived in California. This particular trip to Coyote Hills Regional park was largely ignored on my hard drive, so it's nice to pull a few images out. Here's a lovely female red-winged black bird perched on some early spring cattails in the freshwater marsh.

Sanderling dance moves, Parker River National Wildlife Refuge

A cool thing about photography is how it can capture a single moment and give it meaning beyond what you may have noticed in real time. Here, a simple change in the direction this sanderling was running added a lot of life ot the frame -- giving the illusion of a sanderling dancing across the beach.

Semipalmated sandpiper with prey, Parker River National Wildlife Refuge

It was fun to watch this small flock of semipalmated sandpipers rapidly work over the wet sand left behind by the receding tide along the Lot 6 beach in Parker River National Wildlife Refuge. The pace they were moving up the beach suggested that there wasn't much left to feed on, but this sandpiper found what appears to be a small worm, which was quickly swallowed.

Seeking shelter on the tidal flats, Piping plovers at Sandy Point

I had a lot of fun watching this family of piping plovers on my first trip to Sandy Point State Reservation for the summer breeding season. I initially encountered them along the dunes, but eventually some of the chicks decided to explore the expansive tidal flats of a very low tide. The patterns in the sand left behind by the receding water made for a unique setting to photograph them as they sought refuge under their father's wing.

Least tern chick receives a fish, Sandy Point State Reservation

On my mid-summer trips to see the breeding birds at Sandy Point State Reservation, I was almost always focused on the piping plovers running around the beach. There is a colony of least terns there as well, and when a family chose to stay near the ropes, a large crowd of photographers tended to form near them each time I visited. I spent the first light of one trip focused on terns, and it was easy to see why there is a such a draw to them. Unlike the piping plovers, which are in constant motion and responsible for feeding themselves, the terns are much more stationary and you have a chance to witness the tender moments of a parent bringing prey back to the little ones.

For a while, the chick was snuggled with its other parent on the sand. At some point it must have heard the call of this parent returning, because it leapt to its feet and started running around excitedly. Then its parent flew into the frame and handed off a rather large fish. Unfortunately, I was zoomed in a bit too tight and clipped the tips of the wings, but it was a great moment to witness!

Shared with this week's Wild Bird Wednesday