Wednesday was another remarkable day afield as I followed through on my plan to visit Long Lake National Wildlife Refuge, which I postponed the previous Saturday due to the exciting opportunity to photograph Hudsonian Godwits during their short stopover to fuel up on invertebrates at a shallow bay just north of my office. Would I find more Hudsonians along my 90-mile birding route from home to Long Lake and ultimately another 40 miles to my hometown of Bismarck? Certainly, spring migration was in full swing, especially among shorebirds, and new birds of the day turned out to be part of the excitement of the Great Plains drive.

As with most rarely encountered birds, seeing a Piping Plover is exciting, but photographing takes us into another dimension of birding. Often, devoting some time and patience, perhaps mixed with a little persistence, can yield representative photos that add another chapter to your spring birding adventures (600mm zoom lens, f-8 aperture, 1/4000 shutter speed, 800 ISO).

An impressive variety of birds was on hand across the vibrant Coteau prairies, wetlands, and farm fields along the way. When I reached Long Lake National Wildlife Refuge, I hoped for more shorebirds and expected to see some of the first Western Grebes. Indeed I did see a few Westerns, along with the first Eared Grebe of spring. But the big surprise was finding a group of 4 Piping Plovers on a lonely gravel road that divides Long Lake! Pipers are very hard to find in the interior of the Northern Plains, especially away from the sandbars of the Missouri River where they nest when conditions are right. This was probably another rare chance sighting of the species during a migration stopover, and the little shorebirds were busy working the gravel and sand for small insects, and grabbing a worm when possible.

These plovers are so small and so cryptically colored that anyone but a birder would likely not even notice them. When you have a chance to see Piping Plovers up close, the thing that’s most obvious about them is how cute they are! And how small they are. They make great photo subjects, when you can get close enough, and now I was hooked into trying to make the most of this rare opportunity to try to get a photo or 2 during what I suspect was a short refuge stopover. The 4 plovers were spread out along the road, so I tried to work with the closest plover, with limited success at first. The little Piper took a while to warm up to the careful advances of my car, which I used as a mobile blind. I thought about trying to walk closer to try to keep up with the plover’s movements, but that usually doesn’t turn out well and I didn’t want to scare any of the birds into flight.

When you have a chance to see Piping Plovers up close, the thing that’s most obvious about them is how cute they are! And how small they are; but they make great photo subjects when you can get close enough – or when they venture closer to you (600mm zoom lens, f-8 aperture, 1/4000 shutter speed, 800 ISO.)

One of the Piping Plovers eventually seemed to disregard the white car on the side of the road and actually began foraging in my direction – great! The little shorebird foraged along the roadsides from one shoulder to the other, and along the sand and gravel that covered the road. Luckily, we had that stretch of road with water on both sides to ourselves that Wednesday afternoon, or at least during the time I spent among the plovers – no other vehicles passed by, to my delight. Eventually, the little plover worked its way right up to my mobile blind, providing me with the chance to take some close, almost full frame images. It even stopped to preen a few moments before bending forward to do a plumage ruffle, then continued its search for food. When the Piper passed by, I took it as a clue to move on, but it sure was a joy to be in the plover zone in the midst of a vast bird refuge filled with the sights and sounds of spring.

Another Shorebird Surprise

Still pumped up about Hudsonian Godwits, during the first 25 miles of my journey to Long Lake Refuge I was thrilled to find the rare super-migrants at 2 different locations – a single male north of home among a group of 7 larger Marbled Godwits to start my drive, and 5 other males closer to the 25 mile mark. The lone Hudsonian wasn’t in a very good location for photographs, so after a couple documentary photos I headed farther west, but happy to see another of the secretive shorebirds close to home. When I reached the lake where I observed the partial-albino Gadwall 2 weeks earlier, I began a third attempt to relocate the unique leucistic duck. Along the half-mile drive there was a variety of ducks, a couple pairs of Giant Canada Geese, the first Horned Grebe and Wilson’s Phalarope of spring, and a small flock of small sandpipers.

When the Piping Plover approached to one of its closest positions, it seemed to relax and even began preening, followed by a full body ruffle of its plumage as it extended its head and neck forward. The fast shutter speed easily stopped the flurry of action (600mm zoom lens, f-8 aperture, 1/3200 shutter speed, 800 ISO).

As I identified the sandpipers as Baird’s, I looked ahead and saw 2 godwits – Hudsonian Godwits! They were close to the road, standing out of the shallows, showing the full length of their legs as they stood upright, more aware of my car than I was of them up to that point. I inched forward, with the sun at my back and began photographing as I saw there were 3, then 5 in proximity. Immediately I was back in the zone, tuned into photographing the rarely encountered godwits during a Dakota migration stopover in the midst of their long journey from the coastal marshes of Argentina to the Arctic tundra of Canada or Alaska.

Another opportunity to observe and photograph Hudsonian Godwits during a brief migration stopover provided more photos in different contexts. The f-8 aperture setting provided an ample area in focus for both of the shorebird photo sessions, while preserving fast shutter speeds (600mm zoom lens, f-8 aperture, 1/2500 shutter speed, 800 ISO).

While the Hudsonian Godwits I observed the previous weekend were intent on feeding with few interactions and no skirmishes, a couple of these godwits were quite aggressive toward the other godwits within sight, chasing them across the shore, through the water, and sometimes into flight. I photographed a rather heated interaction between 2 males, and when they flew off in chase, another male became aggressive, displaying aggressively with his head and bill pointed downward, plumage ruffled, and its tail lowered and spread wide as he advanced to displace another male, then another from their feeding bouts.

Using my mobile blind, I ever so slowly moved forward or backward a number of feet to keep in touch with individual godwits as they foraged. Of course, my auto was turned off when photographing, I used the frame of my open window to rest and steady my camera lens on; I held my breath as I took each photo, and I was on alert to try to anticipate the birds’ next action, which even included a couple flights. The only downside was that I arrived at midday when the sun was mostly overhead, which added more of a shadow than I like to the underside of the godwits. I did return to the location on the next sunny day – Friday – but there were no godwits in sight (as expected really; they seem to be making brief feeding and rest stops).

This flight photo of a Hudsonian Godwit was taken during a brief chase after a spirited skirmish between 2 of the feeding shorebirds (600mm zoom lens, f-8 aperture, 1/1600 shutter speed, 800 ISO).

Just as it’s especially exciting to see new birds during migration stopovers along sometimes extensive northbound flights, it’s a little disappointing they tend to stay for just a brief rest and feed session. But that’s part of the excitement these birds bring to the season, and it will be especially true when the variety of warblers and other songbirds bless us during the weeks of May. Some birds will be especially fleeting, tantalizing you with a brief look, then gone for the rest of the year. Others will afford us a few moments to focus our camera on their colorful plumage and document their presence before us before slipping behind new leaves. Some moments there will be such a movement of songbirds before us that it will be hard to decide which bird to focus on, and ultimately, this will be a spring to remember, with a file of new photographs of birds many people never get to study at close range, or to photograph during thrilling moments of birding enthusiasm. Good Luck!

Article and Photographs by Paul Konrad

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