Black-bellied Plover.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I see this species just about every Fall up here, but this was my first ever sighting of one in breeding plumage (well, almost fully in breeding plumage as it is not quite 100% there yet). All my previous photos are of juveniles, and they do not have the black front. When showing my images some people would ask why it had this name for it. Now I can show them why

Photographed at Fort Desoto's north beach marshes.

Canon 7D + 100-400L @350mm, aperture priority, evaluative metering, 1/640s., f/6.3, ISO 800, +1 EC, eliminated an ugly piece of vegetation at left edge (clone tool), and some debris along bottom edge, and some bill clean-up (patch tool)

[Morkel Erasmus]

DanCad, love the low angle and the exquisite colours here. Usual high IQ from you...DOF perfect for me.

[Lorant Voros]

Nice light and colors, good low angle...bet your chin was pressed against the ground again. Congrats for the first breeding plumage.

[Humberto Ramos]

Great quality as usual, BG is great and like the raising foot.

[dankearl]

Very nice, the usual great IQ, maybe a tad more at the top?
Neat looking bird at this phase.

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

Nice to get the 'good' plumage version of this fellow.

Excellent techs as usual, I like the comp, but what really got my attention, other than the bird, was the play of the icy blues against the warmer, orangey browns of the background. Very appealing.

Cheers

Randy

[Karl Egressy]

Nice image, Daniel. I like the low angle and the nice background.
I used to see them in full breeding plumage at Presquille which is close for you.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Great DOF and the light and exp look great. I like the various colors in the bG...Nicely presented image!

[Jim Crosswell]

Excellent image Daniel! I like the low angle, IQ, exposure and BG. I found these guys in a local field yesterday and got some images from the car.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Thanks all! Much appreciated :-)

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Dan,
Was I lying next to you when you took this!!?
Light to die for and great pose...happy memories...
Warm regards,
Nicki

[gail bisson]

Very nice Daniel! It is the BG colors that make this image for me! The orange and blues are gorgeous.
Gail

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hi Dan,
Was I lying next to you when you took this!!?
Light to die for and great pose...happy memories...
Warm regards,
Nicki

Thanks Nicki...yes, that is indeed at that time. A fun morning! Thanks Gail, I rather like the colour combo too!

[Arno Ellmer]

Delightful image ,Daniel ! Beautiful in all respects.

[Frank Schauf]

Very nice pose and bg colours.