A Gallery of Thanks, Amagansett Outtakes Edition

Lots of Leggy Shorebirds and One Dubious Snack

My Gallery of Thanks posts are a way to express appreciation to my paid subscribers with a monthly offering of written, photo, video, and podcast material. If you’re not yet a paid subscriber and that sounds good to you, here’s a handy button that will unlock a bonanza of bonus bird content. As always, 5% of earnings donated to the American Birding Association.

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I have a bad birding habit. I constantly take along my camera (with its heavy telephoto lens), sling it around my shoulder, and promptly forget it’s there. In my journey to become a better photographer and capture more video footage, that’s just dumb. Not only am I doing myself no favors in content creation, I’m needlessly adding several pounds of weight to what can be hours-long walks. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with NOT using a camera while birding, but leaving the camera at home should mean actually leaving the camera at home. If I’m going to cause irreparable harm to my spinal column, I might as well get some decent photos and footage in the bargain.

No more of that nonsense. Time to mend my ways, and our recent trip to Amagansett, NY was just the chance I needed. Amagansett provided golden opportunities to—

1) Ramp up my camera use on birds I don’t normally get to see.
2) Focus on a field mark I don’t normally focus on—the legs!

I started with the impossibly cute Piping Plover.

Thanks to some concerted, coordinated efforts to save the world’s most adorable shorebird (such as roping off their breeding grounds and fencing their nests against predators), opportunities to capture Piping Plovers in Amagansett are increasing every year. I found these delightful orbs scurrying around every beach I birded.