They're back.........

[Grace Scalzo]

Always great when these endangered birds return to our Long Island shores in the early spring. The males come first to set up their territories. Tonight there were seven !

1/2000, f 6.3, iso800
1dx, 500 f4 _ 1.4tc lowered tripod

[Sachin Saraf]

Grace, thanks for posting this image..Love the patterns in sand, nice low PoV, sharp well exposed..and little bird looks beautiful in this frame. If mine I will remove the small white dot under lower mandible.
I wish I was on east coast and would have enjoyed photographing these beautiful small birds...

[arash_hazeghi]

sweet! love the low angle and details. the small puddles have created a nice effect here

[PhilCook]

Lovely, but what is it ?

Light and exposure looks rather nice as does the puddled shoreline, looks well composed as is, but maybe a sliver more off the top

[Karl Egressy]

This image is a real beuty, Grace. Excellent pose and light.

[Steve Wasson]

Excellent image, Grace! Love the bird, the light. I really like the shoreline textures.

[gail bisson]

I love piping plovers.
Great light and perfect HA.
I really like the sand mounds with the water in the depressions.
IQ awesome as always.
I see a little white spot under the beak ? sand? feather. I would be tempted to clone that out,
Gail

[Grace Scalzo]

Thanks everyone. Yes, it is a piping plover, sorry Phil...I should have id'd it forgetting that not everyone lives on Long Island. :)
The speck is indeed sand. In the big version, you can see that his beak is partly open and there is a morsel of food in it. Hence the sand. But I need to start looking at these twice and seeing how they look in small format, in which case the sand could go. By way of explanation, when low tide approaches and the Long Island sound recedes, a flat forms on this beach. The little depressions are rivulets formed by the water pulling out. I have not yet found a prettier place to photograph Plovers than here under these conditions. :) Just my opinion tho.

[Marina Scarr]

Stunning light, and I really love the effect of all of the small pools.

[Tim King]

Perfect from top to bottom. Fine job.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Elegant, "simple" and immensely beautiful. The light is gorgeous and the puddles add nice depth and variation of color to the fg/bg.
The pose is perfect and the plover is a beauty.
I visited Nickerson beach for only about an hour last year, but do hope to make a more leisurely visit to this beautiful place someday.
The comp is great, but I could see just a bit off the top.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Really nice Grace!!! I think the sand and small puddles take this up a notch!