I see this species occasionally but they’re very small and I’m usually not close enough or the angle is too steep (shooting from my pick-up) for good shots.\u00a0 I’ve often put down my camera and just\u00a0observed them – their butt-bumping is quite entertaining to watch.<\/p>\n
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\u00a01\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n But on my last Montana trip I got some shots of one of them I like.\u00a0 We’d traveled a great distance on dusty roads to reach a small canyon with a running stream.\u00a0 The first day in the canyon we only got a glimpse of this sandpiper because just as we spotted it two Prairie Falcons harassed this bird (at least I suspect it was this same bird) and it flew off.\u00a0 But the next day we came back and found the sandpiper feeding in the slow-moving and very shallow stream.\u00a0 Soon it hopped up on this rock at almost eye level.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n But it was very wary of potential danger from the sky\u00a0– it\u00a0looked up several times and gave what may have been an alarm call.\u00a0 I suspect that part of its nervousness was caused by its close call the day before.<\/p>\n It perched on this rock for several minutes and for nearly all of that time it held its left leg up in this position, butt-bumping as it did so.\u00a0 I wondered if the leg or foot was injured but later it walked and foraged normally.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0Soon it walked down the side of the rock and closer to the shallow stream that you can see out of focus at lower right.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"spotted](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/spotted-sandpiper-3464-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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