Willets are shore birds that tend to mind their own business and with their sand coloring it is easy to miss them. As the sun was coming up this one decided to take a stroll away from the water and there was a bit of contrast between him and the hard packed sand. The line shadows behind him were created by a dead tree standing in the ocean surf.

Then he took off, first showing me his patterned underwings…

…then revealing a nice view of his the upper side of his wing, and a cool shadow.

I didn’t capture his shadow in this last image but I did like the driftwood background as the Willet flew away.

Botany Bay Island, SC, August 4, 2019