Shorebirds

I've been looking for shorebirds lately - and not finding many.  I'd love to find a big flock of them one day.  But I had fun the other day going to Birch Bay - and just finding a few.

The first shorebirds we found were not even on the shore - they were up on the lawn in Birch Bay State Park.  Semipalmated Killdeer 

They move so fast that I had to aim the camera far ahead of where I thought they were going and hope for a bird in the photo. 

Then in town we saw just one of them on the beach 

Such a pretty little bird 

There on the beach, in the small waves breaking on the stones, were semipalmated sandpipers 

Semipalmated having to do with their toes only being partially webbed 

They are a small sandpiper - only about 5" tall 

They don't gather in large flocks, just a few together at a time 

And then the Killdeer and the Sandpipers were together on the beach 

Searching for food among the smooth stones  

For size comparison, a seagull floated by