![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/spotted-sandpiper-0242-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"spotted-sandpiper-0242-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nThis may look like a typical wing stretch but looks can be deceiving and this one is.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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>\n Three days ago I watched as this Spotted Sandpiper was bathing. I wasn’t very close to the bird and it had its back to me so I didn’t take many photos but bathing is always interesting to watch through my lens.<\/p>\n When its bath is finished this species has a highly predictable behavior of flapping its wings as it rises a foot or two above the water and then landing on the shore which is usually very close to where it was bathing. I believe it to be a drying-off maneuver but whatever its function you can count on it happening after the bath.<\/p>\n I wanted photos while it was still in the air but sadly those shots were soft. Here I caught the sandpiper immediately after its short flight-hop to the shore of the sand bar.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 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>\n Typically they hold their wings up for a moment after landing so I got several shots of this pose. Only moments before this bird had been in a serious fight with two other sandpipers and that may or may not explain why it was also calling.<\/p>\n I wish I’d been closer to the bird so I had better image quality but if I had been the shooting angle would be even steeper than this. So I’ll take these shots as an acceptable compromise between distance and shooting angle that allowed me to document at least part of an interesting and highly predictable behavior.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n On an unrelated note:<\/em><\/p>\n Our predicted low last night here in Salt Lake City was 65\u00b0 but when I got up this morning at 3:30 my thermometer read 78\u00b0. This summer is shaping up to be an unmitigated disaster.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This may look like a typical wing stretch but looks can be deceiving and this one is.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/spotted-sandpiper-0241-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"spotted-sandpiper-0241-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n