Nature

Least Sandpipers, Kingsport Beach, NS

Posted by Ellie
4 birds with short necks and long beaks are on a sandy and stony beach. They have white buff breasts and black and brown and white wings and heads.
Sandpipers on a beach

For bird lovers, here is a blast from the past remembering warm sunny days in August on the beach at Kingsport, Nova Scotia, watching the shorebirds going about their business.

We love walking on the beach, watching many small flocks of these little shorebirds forage for food or swooping and dipping over the water. When in the air they keep a tight formation, wheeling and banking so that at times the flash of the underside of their wings makes them invisible against the water behind them. They are approachable, not being frightened particularly, except when the ball or dog lands in their midst.

This was the photograph I got in August 2014. I owe it, in part, to my friend, Linda who walked with me and Joni (and waded with us through the incoming tide that caught us unawares) as, when I hesitated as to whether to bring my camera or not, she said “you always take your camera everywhere”, so I did. And I had chosen the right lens, for once.

My animals gallery, including this image, is here.

Sunday Sun Day

Posted by Ellie
A mown field stretches towards the upper half of the frame, towards a bank of darker trees. There is a line of small tuffted brushes that resemble tiny hay stacks almost. There is a young fir tree in the right side, with a young deciduous tree in front. The sun is shining down into the frame, with rays highlighting areas of the field including some of the small tufted stacks.
Sunday Sun Day

Our fields will soon be covered with snow, so this scene can serve to remind me of the lovely light of an early fall day. The morning sun highlighted those tufts of grasses left by the mower so beautifully that they look almost like old-fashioned hay ricks left to dry. Have a lovely day, friends, enjoy the sunshine in your lives whenever you find it.