When I went to Bottle Beach on May 5th, I knew that our timing was less than desirable because we would only see birds as high tide arrived, and high tide was after sunset. Of course, I also knew that this was the only time we could be there during the Spring Migration, so I was willing to take my chances with the light and the tide.
Bottle Beach is relatively flat, so the tide comes in quite slowly at first and then comes rushing in as it rises. As a result, most of the first shots were taken at a considerable distance with the sun behind the birds, which resulted in less than desirable results, as in this shot of a Whimbrel, one of the birds I had hoped to see on our visit.
I quickly realized I would have to lower the shutter speed if I wanted the best pictures possible. I did get better photos of shorebirds that were feeding, but it also meant that I ended up with blurry photos when birds took flight, as in this shot of a Dowitcher.
Before long, it was getting dark enough that most of the shots, especially those taken at a distance, were underexposed. Black-Bellied Plovers in breeding colors are one of my favorite shorebirds, and it’s special to get a shot of one that has just caught a giant worm, but I couldn’t correct the exposure on this shot to make it any better
and I had the same problem with this shot of a Red Knot, which was good enough that Merlin could identify it as a Red Knot, but wasn’t good enough that I’m going to save it after this.
Although I was disappointed with most of the pictures that I took that evening, that wasn’t true of all of them, particularly those taken when the tide was almost fully in and I could take shots of birds that were behind me, with the sunlight coming over my shoulder.
The light seemed particularly suited to Dowitchers in breeding color, playing up their already golden plumage.
I would have loved the experience if not a single picture had turned out. True, there weren’t as many birds as there had been in the previous two weeks, there wasn’t even the same number of birds I’ve seen on previous visits, but neither were there crowds of people.