[Sanderling probes for food, Stone Harbor Point, NJ. Still mostly in breeding plumage, this bird has traveled a minimum of 1700 miles from its breeding ground north of Hudson Bay to get here.]
Nothing like a beach walk when the crowds have disappeared and the sun settles behind you. I hadn't walked Stone Harbor Point since. . . too long.
[Semipalmated Plover, one of 20 or so at Stone Harbor Point tonight.]
[Above, adult and below, juvenile: color-banded Piping Plovers at Stone Harbor Point.]
[Two Western Willets tower over an Eastern Willet at Stone Harbor Point. Western and Eastern Willets are separate populations and maybe separate species. Many Eastern Willet adults have already pulled out and headed for South America, where they winter. Western Willets winter farther north, and some migrate to the mid-Atlantic coast before heading south. A mix of both forms foraged in the surf for mole crabs and other goodies at Stone Harbor Point tonight.]
[This first summer Western Willet is in wing molt - and good thing, with such worn feathers!]
[Crab dinner for a Herring Gull.]
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