Why It’s Called the Long-toed Stint

[Craig Brelsford]

A long-toed stint, still very much in its breeding plumage, struts across the mud in Yangkou, Jiangsu last month. This image shows clearly the long digits that give the long-toed stint its name. Swedish birder Daniel Pettersson and I were half-floating on our air mattress in one of the many brackish pools just inland from the East China Sea. Keeping low and gliding smoothly, we often got excitingly close, as here. The mattress method yielded excellent results, boosting my confidence as I prepare to go full-time professional.

Device: Nikon D3S
Lens: VR 600mm F/4G
Focal Length: 600 mm
Aperture: F/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/1600
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Exposure Comp.: None
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 800
Metering Mode: Center-Weight
Subject Distance: 6.0 m
Photoshoppery: The usual spot removal, sharpening, noise-reducing, and cropping.

[James Fuller]

Nice smooth BKGRND and nice lighting on the birds body, only wish for a better head angle.

[Marina Scarr]

Great ID photograph captured here. Love how it depicts those long digits. You had nice muted light and nice details.

Love your floating mattress idea. What color and size is your mattress if you don't mind sharing?

[Craig Brelsford]

Great ID photograph captured here. Love how it depicts those long digits. You had nice muted light and nice details.

Love your floating mattress idea. What color and size is your mattress if you don't mind sharing?

Thanks, Marina.

As Rod Stewart said, every picture tells a story. Click on the link below and scroll down for a shot of me on the mattress:

http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/88839-Theme-Curlew-Sandpiper-Moving-into-Winter-Plumage?highlight=

We went through three of 'em in 10 days. They kept getting holes in them. A nice camouflage color would be good, too.

[Ben_Sadd]

Great details, just a shame the bird is not angled slightly towards the camera.

Love the floating mattress. Have you thought of including camouflage over the top too? Unfortunately most of the water bodies I go to are either out of bounds for such things or too deep.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice view of the toes! Too bad about the HA, and the image is framed a bit tight, but I like the image...great for studying key filed marks. Lightening the upper part of the eye (the faint reflection) usually makes a big difference.

Sounds pretty expensive going through so many mattresses (OK, maybe not as expensive compared to camera gear)!:S3:

[ramesh anantharaman]

This is just brilliant work. I am tottally loving your mattress series. please do keep them coming.

[Craig Brelsford]

Hi Daniel: Mattresses cost the equivalent of 20 U.S. bucks a pop. Well worth the money for the results we got.

Yangkou in August is particularly well suited for the mattress:

1. The terrain is pure water and mud; it's not rocky at all. For a person on foot, this is bad news. The mud is so soft that walking to many places is impossible. You'll sink in the quicksand. But with the mattress, a muddy place is good, because it's often possible to glide right across the slick surface. On the water, the mattress is useful not only as a platform, but as a mode of transportation. We often saw birds in the distance and could wade to them in minutes.

2. It's hot in Yangkou in August. Yangkou is at the same latitude as Savannah, Ga. and has a climate roughly similar to that of the southeastern United States. When the weather's hot, getting into the water isn't going to chill you.

3. Many of the brackish pools inland are not deep, and there's no current; we therefore had our feet on the bottom at all times, and the only disturbance came from the wind. Out on the tidal flats, it's windier, and the tide moves in and out, but we had no problems.

We were in Yangkou for 10 days. We used the mattress nearly every day. We had no close calls, nothing. We might have had a close call or two if we hadn't been so careful. For example, the water is murky, the bottom invisible, so I got into the habit of feeling out the next step before committing. In that way, my foot discovered a few deep ditches before I stepped into them.

On a rocky shore with cold, deep, lively water, the mattress wouldn't be a good option at all.

[Arthur Morris]

Bummer on the head angle otherwise superb. The contrast between the cap and the prominent eyeline is the best field mark to separate juvenile LTST from juvenile Least Sandpiper. It is rare to get such a good look at that long middle toe and in the field you would see it only for an instant.

Can you fit three folks on a raft???

[Craig Brelsford]

Can you fit three folks on a raft???

I'm supposing you mean our mattress. As a matter of fact, three guys can fit. We had a British birder with us some of the time and had few problems. We were on mud, though; no risk of stuff falling into water. Maybe I'd go with three only on mud, not water.

Why do you ask?

P.S.: For a fuller look at the results I got, and for more shots of the mattress in action, you can view my thread on birdnet.cn, the big Chinese bird-photography site:

http://birdnet.cn/showtopic.aspx?topicid=281770

[Arthur Morris]

Not sure why I wrote "raft." Maybe I was thinking of Gilligan. I ask because I love shorebirds and have long dreamed of photographing the species that you have been posting every day. I hope to make it to Yangkou, Jiangsu one August before I die. I was joshing about the three folks on the mattress as I can afford to buy a mattress. :S3:

[Craig Brelsford]

Not sure why I wrote "raft." Maybe I was thinking of Gilligan. I ask because I love shorebirds and have long dreamed of photographing the species that you have been posting every day. I hope to make it to Yangkou, Jiangsu one August before I die. I was joshing about the three folks on the mattress as I can afford to buy a mattress. :S3:

Artie, I'm now giving tours to photographers as well as pure birders. I'd enjoy showing you around.

[Arthur Morris]

Not sure that I could handle the flights in AUG 2013 after my upcoming Japan trip but I will look seriously at coming over in either AUG 2012 or AUG 2013. :S3: Doing so would be one of the great highlights of my life.

[Craig Brelsford]

Not sure that I could handle the flights in AUG 2013 after my upcoming Japan trip but I will look seriously at coming over in either AUG 2012 or AUG 2013. :S3: Doing so would be one of the great highlights of my life.

Artie, glad to see you see the value in a trip to Yangkou. Here are a few things I've found in my many trips up there.

1. Mid- to late August is still rainy season over here. By rainy season, I don't mean what you get in Florida, where it can pour at 1530 and be sunny again at 1600. Around here, it can drizzle for days. I had to laugh when a few BPN members mentioned the lack of catchlight in the eyes of my Yangkou birds. There was often no catchlight to catch. The light was dull, dead. It was nice to be able to shoot throughout the day, but this cloudiness was often beyond merely wiping away the shadows; it was at the sucking-out-color stage.

Be prepared, therefore, to get wet, and be prepared to lose chunks of days to rain. Be prepared to have little or none of that sweet light so common in the United States and Canada.

Come September, the rain slows down, the shorebirds are still here, and the migratory passerines are arriving. In August, passerines are not as numerous. But August is the best time to catch shorebirds still in their breeding plumage.

2. You'll often be awestruck at the disregard for the environment exhibited by too many Chinese (and too many of their leaders). For example, someone had the bright idea of planting spartina grass out on the mudflats. This utterly alien species can reach the height of a man, and its blades are sharp. The effect has been transformative on the parts of the estuary to which the grass has spread. Still, huge areas of the coast remain out of the reach of the grass.

3. The bright side is that Yangkou is a very large, very flat, very muddy bit of coast, and therefore very attractive to huge numbers of shorebirds. And it's on the East Asian Australasian Flyway. An American on his first big trip to Asia may get five or six lifers on his very first day here.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I had to laugh when a few BPN members mentioned the lack of catchlight in the eyes of my Yangkou birds. There was often no catchlight to catch.

I can understand that, and experience that often...but you don't need to have a pin catchlight such as ones caused by the sun or a flash. All you need is to enhance the reflection that is already visible on the eye (see the very top part of the eye in this image for example). The dodge tool is very effective with this, and it makes a huge difference in the finished image.

BTW, thanks for the additional info on the area. Always nice to get the gist of some other places!

[Craig Brelsford]

..but you don't need to have a pin catchlight such as ones caused by the sun or a flash. All you need is to enhance the reflection that is already visible on the eye (see the very top part of the eye in this image for example). The dodge tool is very effective with this, and it makes a huge difference in the finished image.

Thanks, Daniel, I'll remember what you said here and try harder to liven up the eyes of my birds.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Craig,

re:

1. Mid- to late August is still rainy season over here. By rainy season, I don't mean what you get in Florida, where it can pour at 1530 and be sunny again at 1600. Around here, it can drizzle for days. I had to laugh when a few BPN members mentioned the lack of catchlight in the eyes of my Yangkou birds. There was often no catchlight to catch. The light was dull, dead. It was nice to be able to shoot throughout the day, but this cloudiness was often beyond merely wiping away the shadows; it was at the sucking-out-color stage.

Thank God for digital.

Be prepared, therefore, to get wet, and be prepared to lose chunks of days to rain. Be prepared to have little or none of that sweet light so common in the United States and Canada. Come September, the rain slows down, the shorebirds are still here, and the migratory passerines are arriving.

I can handle it.

In August, passerines are not as numerous. But August is the best time to catch shorebirds still in their breeding plumage.

Adult birds in August are not in breeding plumage. Some or many--like your faded, molting adult Curlew Sanpeper--may show remnants of breeding plumage. The handsomest birds in August are the juveniles. Are there shorebirds there in late April and May?


2. You'll often be awestruck at the disregard for the environment exhibited by too many Chinese (and too many of their leaders).

Not. I have been to Uzbekistan....

For example, someone had the bright idea of planting spartina grass out on the mudflats. This utterly alien species can reach the height of a man, and its blades are sharp. The effect has been transformative on the parts of the estuary to which the grass has spread. Still, huge areas of the coast remain out of the reach of the grass.

You gotta love what we have been doing to the planet.

3. The bright side is that Yangkou is a very large, very flat, very muddy bit of coast, and therefore very attractive to huge numbers of shorebirds. And it's on the East Asian Australasian Flyway. An American on his first big trip to Asia may get five or six lifers on his very first day here.

For sure and at least. :S3: