![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/spotted-sandpiper-2801on-dudley.jpg\" "\\"spotted-sandpiper-2801on-dudley\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\nI even caught one of the chicks gobbling down a tiny green insect. This was the only time I could actually see what they were eating.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/spotted-sandpiper-2827on-dudley.jpg\" "\\"spotted-sandpiper-2827on-dudley\\"")
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1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\nBut they never strayed far from the patch of vegetation beneath a tree (really a tall bush) that they used for cover whenever they needed or wanted to.<\/p>\n
Not long after this photo was taken I heard one of the nearby parents frantically sounding an alarm call and both of the chicks immediately disappeared into the greenery beneath the tree. Then I saw a behavior from the agitated adult that I’d never seen before with this species.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/spotted-sandpiper-2954-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"spotted-sandpiper-2954-ron-dudley\\"")
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1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\nIt landed in some dead branches perhaps 15′ off the ground on top of the tree directly above where the chicks were hidden. In my experience with Spotted Sandpipers they’ve always been on the ground near water. I had never seen one perched in a tree (or on any elevated perch for that matter) so I did some research to find out how common it is. This is what I found in Cornell’s BNA Online:<\/p>\n
\n- “Sometimes perches in trees or on poles, especially while on lookout with chicks.”<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
It all fits, doesn’t it. The adult landed on the elevated parch to have a better view of both its chicks below and whatever it was that it perceived as a threat to them.<\/p>\n
And no, I never did see what that threat was but I’m sure it wasn’t me.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three days ago I found the Spotted Sandpiper chicks again and they were closer than they were last time.<\/p>\n
Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[393,334,392,1610],"tags":[4640,41,47,50,481,145,146,3172,1611],"class_list":["post-73909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bathing-bird-behaviors","category-birds","category-feeding-bird-behaviors","category-spotted-sandpipers","tag-actitis-macularius","tag-baby","tag-bathing","tag-behavior","tag-chick","tag-fledgling","tag-flight","tag-insect-prey","tag-spotted-sandpiper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/spotted-sandpiper-2785-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-je5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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