photographs of plovers.

This shot was taken as the fading rays of the setting sun broke through an overcast sky in Sandy Point State Reservation last July. It won't be too long from now that the shorebird numbers will start increasing with the spring migration, and I hope to get out there to photograph them. Plum Island (which contains both the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge and the Sandy Point State Reservation) gets red knots passing through each year -- and it's my goal to photograph one in their gorgeous spring colors.

Sunrise Sandwich..

Last summer, I spent a week photographing a colony of sandwich terns which nest on an island near to my home. The only way of getting to the island is by boat and the earliest departure is at 7:00am. I really wanted to shoot the birds bathed in golden morning light so I slept overnight in the hide to be ready at 4:00am, in time for sunrise. Just as the sun started to peak over the horizon, the adults were already streaming in and out of the colony, shuttling freshly caught fish to their hungry chicks.

The birds flew out of the colony to my right and upon returning, the adults with nests to my far left flew, right in front of the rising sun. They’re fairly fast flyers and tracking them full frame with the 800mm lens I was using was very difficult. I found I had a much higher hit rate if I focused on the birds flying past a little further away and as a result, I managed to catch this adult just before it past in front of the blinding sun-ball.