Flock Flight

My final photo in the series, which plays out like a flip animation. This was the last shot I got before the birds settled down.  It best shows the white and black spotted bellies, and also shows the really fascinating flight flock phenomenon. How these birds can fly so closely together and turn with such precision is one of the amazing things about them, and just so mesmerizing to watch. The thing you can't see in a photo is how fast they are moving.  I had lots of time to practice with my best shutter speed as the birds came in from high tide, and I finally settled on my fastest option which is 1/4000 of a second.  But I had adjusted to 1/1000 of a second when I was photographing the birds standing in the shoreline and wasn't prepared for this big flying flock.  I hardly ever use shutter speeds this fast. These birds can really move!

Sandpipers and Dunlins

I'm about exhausting my shorebird knowledge here, but the birds with the black bellies are the dunlins.  They are a variation of sandpiper, which has the white belly.  Gray's Harbor NWR gets an enormous volume of shorebirds, but not a large variety.  The count peaks in the upper 40,000s, with mainly sandpiper and dunlin and two other similar species. The birds arrive from San Francisco and they each stop over for up to four days and then continue their migration up to Alaska. (This is what I learned from the birders as we waited for the tide to recede.)