Day Trip to South Beach, Chatham

Yesterday I went for a day trip to Chatham, Massachusetts, which is located on Cape Cod. This area is known as the shorebird capital of the state, with thousands of birds passing through on their southbound migration. The past few days there has even been five Great White Sharks sighted off the town waters which have moved in to feed on the numerous Gray Seals that hang around the area. I didn't get to see any sharks, but saw plenty of seals and also a good number of shorebirds.

The main area that I searched for birds is called South Beach, which is about a 6 mile long barrier beach which continues to get longer each year. This beach contains a few sections of Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge which is also located on two islands off the coast and can only be reached by boat. This was my second time here and I haven't had the time yet to hike down the whole beach on either occasions. There wasn't as many birds as I remembered from my last trip two years ago, but there was still a good number of interesting birds and I was able to get some nice shots. I added a few new species to my files, and even saw a Black Tern for the first time ever. I will be posting some images from this trip over the next few blog posts and will share a few images that I have processed so far.

Semipalmated Sandpiper in Flight

There was a small pool located on the back of the beach near the dunes which had some sandpipers feeding. They were pretty tame and I could get within 15 feet of them while standing. Sometimes the birds would get uncomfortable with how close I was getting and would take flight and swing around to the other side of me and land not too far away. I tried for a few minutes to get some flight shots and this one came out the best.

White-rumped Sandpiper

I took this image while laying on my stomach next to the edge of the water. If I layed motionless for a few minutes the birds would walk by just a few feet away. This White-rumped Sandpiper was getting in a fight with another sandpiper and I was able to get this portrait. Good thing I had my 25mm extension tube on!