Not Many Knots...

[Arthur Morris]

Denise Ippolito and I visited Cape May in late May to try for Red Knots..... Without much success. Here's the basic story: for decades local crab harvesters decimated the horseshoe crab population catching thousand of truckloads of them to use as eel bait. Worldwide populations of Red Knot, Sanderling, and Ruddy Turnstone have crashed as the birds depended on feasting on the crab eggs to lay on sufficient fat so that they could fly to their nesting grounds above the Arctic circle, begin nesting, and survive for at least a week or two in the likely event of snow and ice.... In recent years a moratorium on harvesting crabs seems to be increasing the numbers of both crabs and birds. However, the beaches are now strictly off limits to everyone including and especially photographers. The situation sort of reminds me of 9-11. Once the horse was out of the barn, the barn is now locked up tight....

I created this image with the 800mm/1.4X/MIV combo as we sat behind the dune on the edge of the beach at Cook's Beach. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/400 sec. at f/9. Three semi-sends were removed from in front of the knot.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

ps: Be sure to check out Denise's really cool high key semi with a row of crab eggs image here:

http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ad.php?t=65249

[Arthur Morris]

ps: Yeah, I too would have liked to have seen the feet :)

[Don Lacy]

Hi Artie, lovely colors on the Red Knott and I really like the layered blue BG and yes the feet would have been nice.

[denise ippolito]

Artie, I was happy to see the few we saw. I didn't get one shot-but I'm not surprised that you did. This one looks like it's fattened up pretty well. Nice pose and I love the water colored BG. Will you post any of your horseshoe crab images?:)

[Grace Scalzo]

I know he has feet, don't need to see them to appreciate this photo. Nice work, love the blue background.

[Sid Garige]

Brilliant image Artie. Great details and excellent eye contact. Blue background is working great here.

[Leandro Herrainz]

excelente sharpness and bg, the light is really good to, i like more if i can see the legs, you tell really good the story about this birds, all the years i see this birds on my province (Tierra del fuego), here is the southtrenmost point that this birds go.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Leandro. And yes, the knots are great travelers. A few winter in the NE US, many in FLA, and many at the southern tip of SA by you! They thought that the differences are age class or race related but neither is looking to be the case.... My friend Brian Harrington did a fine book on the species, Flight of the Red Knot (I think that that was the name...)

ps; Thanks all :)

[Kiran Poonacha]

WOW guru.. loved the artistic setting in this frame..

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks all. I should have mentioned some good news. At one point recently they were say that the population level (in North America, I think), was down 90% from 100,00 Red Knots to 10,000. But this year they have accounted for 50,000 so either they were missing some (likely...) or the species is making a miraculous recovery (likely true in part). Folks interested in shorebirds including identification and aging and their amazing migrations should get themselves a copy of my Shorebirds, Beautiful Beachcombers: https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/ca....aspx?catid=32 :)

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Artie, thx for all the information. Loved the low angle, BG and the placement of bird. Classic image with your touch.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Very nice one sir!
I also want to thank you for the extra info. These birds a so handsome. Love the BG and exposure here.