Staring at the ocean

St. Augustine Beach, FL
January 20, 2023
The first morning light was quite pretty on this lone Willet as he walked the surf line.
He plodded along in no particular rush, with the tide rising behind him.
Squint–do birds get blinded by looking into the sun the way I do?
The Willet walked on to higher ground between the fallen trees that make the boneyard on this beach.
Botany Bay Wildlife Management Area, SC
October 14, 2022
It was late afternoon and windy at the beach when I spotted a Willet hunting in a tidal pool.
Often these shore birds go back and forth in the same pool, probing around the edges for food.
This time the wind kept him moving further down the beach.
He was having success at finding some snacks.
A small flock of Willets stood at the edge of the surf, inching their way inland every few minutes as the tide moved in.
I thought they might take flight, showing off their snazzy wing pattern. They were content to walk, run and hop through the rising water keeping their wings at their sides.
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