The photographs in this gallery were all taken on the east coast of America, in the state of Delaware. The photos were taken on and around the beaches of Delaware Bay, where tens of thousands of waders (shorebirds) gather each spring to fuel up on Horseshoe Crab eggs. The sight of so many waders in one place is an incredible spectacle, and a photographer’s dream!
The birds in the hand, and the ringed (banded) / flagged birds are being studied as part of the Delaware Shorebird Project. The project was set up in 1997 to monitor the health and population status of the shorebirds that use the Bay as a staging area on route to their Arctic breeding grounds. In particular, the project monitors the Red Knot, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Dunlin and Semipalmated Sandpipers that use the Bay, with the aim of better understanding the importance of the Bay to the birds and their connection and dependence on the Horseshoe Crabs that spawn there each spring.
The birds featured in this gallery are:
- Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres
- Red Knot Calidris canutus
- Sanderling Calidris alba
- Semipalmated Sandpiper Calidris pusilla
- Semipalmated Plover Charadrius semipalmatus
- Piping Plover Charadrius melodus
- Short-billed Dowitcher Limnodromus griseus
- Dunlin Calidris alpina
- Black-bellied Plover Pluvialis squatarola
- Lesser Yellowlegs Tringa flavipes
- Willet Tringa semipalmata
- American Oystercatcher Haematopus palliatus
- Black-necked Stilt Himantopus mexicanus