Nature Photography
Bird, wildlife, and landscape photography by Jon Rista
Last weekend, I captured photos of a very protective little Spotted Sandpiper. I was not sure what he was so protective of at the time….however I knew he was exhibiting his nest guarding calls. I figured he was either protecting a pregnant mother, or protecting birthed young. As it turns out, he was protecting his young! There were at least three, maybe four of them (although the fourth may have been a very elusive mommy.) These little tykes were extremely fast, darting from thickets of thorny weeds to tiny little covers…a tuft of grass, another large weed, a rock. I rarely had time to zero in on them with my lens, let alone take a shot. The photo here is by no means artistic, but I thought the little guy was so cute, I couldn’t resist posting it. These little baby pipers seem to be fairly old…a couple/few weeks at least. They are 70% the size of the adults already, however their tiny, high pitched squeaks give them away.
Nature Photography