Ruddy Turnstone in breeding plumage (Probable female) - Rock Sculpture Point - Second Pull off South of Odiorne Point State Park - Rye, NH, USA 08-02-18

'She's Ruddy Beautiful'
(As my Brit friends might say).

Please view full screen for best detail, and feel free to share.

Yesterday afternoon I dropped Aden off at the Seacoast United Soccer Club field complex in Epping to kick the ball around with a few teammates. He asked me to pick him up around 5:00. Okay, I told him. No problem... and off to the coast I went.

I was in search of migrating Shorebirds... yes, you read correctly. The Shorebird migration has already begun.
My target was a Ruddy Turnstone.

I turned stones over all along the coast of North Hampton and Rye. Peeps, and Semipalmated Plovers made up the bulk of my finds. It was 10 minutes before the time I set my phone's alarm to ring when I arrived at the second pull off south of Odiorne Point in Rye. The spot was loaded with peeps and a few Semi Plovers.
I slid down a chute between the rocks down towards the wrack where the birds were feeding, slowly getting closer till finally I was at ground level, and close. At times too close for my 500mm.

(Yeah, I know... I'm not supposed to be doing things like this.
Too bad. I push myself all the time... who knows... maybe my legs will come back if I push hard enough. Never know unless I keep trying. The excitement of so many shorebirds took any thoughts of leg pain away. Getting back up to the truck was somewhat difficult, but I made it... it didn't take all that long. ???????? )

I pushed my time a bit, figuring I had left myself a bit extra... but that time was up... I was just about to call it a day when two Turnstones flew in and started bulldozing the wrack in search of food!
I fired off a number of frames... stopped long enough to let Aden know I was going to be a bit late and shot some more.

I have so many images from this shoot... just over 1,100 in all, shot in two and a half hours :)
So difficult to decide which ones to put up; this is a favorite thus far.

As many of you know, I like to show a bird in it's environment... not fill the frame with the bird in what I term 'Guide Book Shots'. In this case, I had too much glass... this is the full-sized un-cropped image.

Ruddy Turnstone (RUTU) in breeding plumage (Probable female)
Rock Sculpture Point
Second Pull off South of Odiorne Point State Park
Rye, NH, USA 08-02-18

Canon EOS 7D Mark II, EF500mm f-4L IS USM
(Auto Max 1600) ISO 400, f-5.0, 1-2000th Sec., (EFL) 800mm
-1 Exposure Compensation.
Lens balanced on a rock down at ground level. Full-sized - No Crop.
Manual Mode, Partial Metering, Auto White Balance
Edit Flow: Selected and previewed in Adobe Bridge, Adobe Camera Raw, with final editing in Photoshop.
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