{"id":7238,"date":"2015-07-17T06:20:46","date_gmt":"2015-07-17T10:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/p4td.lightshedder.com\/?p=7238"},"modified":"2015-07-17T06:41:21","modified_gmt":"2015-07-17T10:41:21","slug":"upland-sandpiper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psnp.info\/p4td_\/?p=7238","title":{"rendered":"Upland Sandpiper!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Upland Sandpiper, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Kennebunk ME<\/p><\/div>\n

Not a great photo, but a photo against the odds, and a great bird for Southern Maine. There have been, historically, a few nesting pairs of Upland Sandpiper on the Kennebunk Plains each year. Upland Sandpiper reaches the far north-east limits\u00a0of its range on the remnant sand-plains west of Kennebunk. I have not seen sandpipers there\u00a0for at least 6 years…but that does not mean they were\u00a0not there. I am spending a lot more time on the Plains this year, and, perhaps inevitably, yesterday I saw my first Uppies…doing what I assume was distraction flights around a nest. This bird flew up, circled calling loudly, and returned to this little pine repeatedly over the 20 minutes or so I watched. There was a dog near the parking area on the other side from the nest, and the bird was very aware of it.<\/p>\n

Shot against the odds: this shot was taken at a distance of 70-80 yards, too far for decent photography…but that was as close as I wanted to approach. The heat haze was terrible over the Plains at noon, and there was a stiff breeze blowing. Everything was in motion…as you can see from the bokeh. I pushed the camera close to its limits by zooming past optical zoom to an equivalent field of view of 3200mm. And it is handheld. While it is not a great image by any standard…it is certainly a satisfying record of a great bird.<\/p>\n

Nikon P900 as above. 1\/500th @ ISO 280 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly in Lightroom (to eliminate a telephone pole in the background).<\/p>\n

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