Coming in

Jeannine St-Amour Photography
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Coming in
Coming in

When I left Newfoundland, I had one week to spend in the Halifax area as I was meeting my daughter who was joining me for a bit. So I decided to go to Grand-Pré area in Nova Scotia. It is a place I visited some 15 years ago and wanted to see again. I looked at the map for the nearest campground and here I found this one in Grand-Pré right by Evangeline Beach. When I went to the registration desk I saw a framed picture of thousands of semipalmated sandpipers and asked if they knew where that picture was taken from. Well, needless to say that her answer made me extremely happy when she said that it was right by the campground From mid-July to mid-August is their migration from the Arctic to South America. This is their only stop in between where they feed enough to gain twice their weight to be able to fly non stop for 72 hours.

Ok that was very nice and having this kind of opportunity was awesome but how and when, etc.... So I spent my first day observing, walking the beach, trying to figure out their behaviour and where they were going most of the time. Well it took me a few days to figure it out as the challenge was not only the place but also the tide and by mid-week I had learned quite a lot.

A Peregrine Falcon and Merlins were also active and that was easy target for them. Is why they rest in rocks on the beach so to hide and yet, the predators would come and grab one or two. Unfortunately, when they do, the birds don't come back on the same beach for two days.

I had already posted a few pics when I first arrived and these pics were taken on my last day at the perfect tide and with a sunset. At low light however I took this opportunity to do some abstract. It was also the biggest flock I had seen which was estimated at around 15,000 birds.

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Taken on: August 10, 2015
Tags: Everybody's photos tagged with shorebirds shorebirds Everybody's photos tagged with sandpipers sandpipers Everybody's photos tagged with semipalmated sandpipers semipalmated sandpipers more » Everybody's photos tagged with migration migration Everybody's photos tagged with Grand-Pré Grand-Pré Everybody's photos tagged with Evangeline Beach Evangeline Beach Everybody's photos tagged with Travel Travel Everybody's photos tagged with wildlife wildlife Everybody's photos tagged with nature nature « less
Sets appears in:   • Shorebirds    • Nova Scotia   
Camera: Nikon D7100, f/6.3, 1/100 sec, 140mm (=210mm), ISO 800 (more info) (hide info)
Camera: Nikon D7100
Aperture: f/6.3
Exposure Time: 0.01 sec (1/100)
Focal Length: 140mm (35mm equivalent: 210mm)
ISO: 800
Exposure Bias: -0.0286 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program: Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode: Auto
Metering Mode: Multi-segment
White Balance: Auto
Gain Control: Low gain up
Contrast: High
Color Space: sRGB
Software: Ver.1.01
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Stats: 747 views