Mud

 [Short-billed Dowitcher shows why mudflats are so valuable, Taylor's Sound, Cape May, NJ, August 17, 2013. Click to enlarge photos.]

Mud makes the world go 'round for a lot of shorebirds. There are "grasspipers" like Upland Sandpiper, "rockpipers" like Purple Sandpipers, and even "beachpipers" like Sanderlings, but the blue collar members of the shorebird clan dwell on mud. So in August, I spend a lot of time around mud,  the mud of tidal flats that is so replete with invertebrates a human could probably eat it by the mouthful and live a good long time. . .well, maybe I'm carried away, but the dowitchers and Semipalmated Sandpipers and the other mudpipers do just fine.

You can look at the mud from the landward side, but I prefer the view from the water via kayak, which is how these photos came to be.

[Semipalmated Sandpiper, Taylor Sound, Cape May, NJ today]

[A very muddy juvenile Clapper Rail, Taylor Sound, Cape May, NJ today.]