Greg Lasley Nature Photography
All of the images are copyright-protected and have been digitally watermarked and
their display here in no way implies consent for any form of distribution or reuse.
Refer to my image use page if you are interested in purchasing rights. Thanks!

The Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularia) breeds across most of North America and winters across the southern states and into Mexico. In the spring and summer nesting season this species gets a fairly bright orange bill and has a distinctively spotted breast and belly. In the non-breeding season, however, the bird loses it colorful bill as well as its spots. The birds characteristic rapid waling with a bobbing action helps to identify it. The top two shots on the left show a breeding plumaged Spotted Sandpiper which was a northbound migrant when I photographed it in Kenedy Co., Texas, in April, 2000, with a Canon EOS 3 and EF 600mm F/4 L lens and 1.4X extender on Fuji Velvia. The next shot shows a bird in non-breeding plumage in Austin, Travis Co., Texas, in October, 2005. This was a digital image with a Canon EOS 1D Mark II and EF 600mm F/4 L IS lens and 2X extender. This bird would likely winter at this location.

	The Spotted Sandpiper in breeding plumage in the next two shots was in Austin, Travis Co., Texas, in April, 2008. These shots were taken with a Canon EOS 1D Mark III and EF 600mm F/4 L IS lens and 1.4X extender.

The next 11 images of Spotted Sandpiper were all taken in Austin, Travis Co., Texas, in January, 2010, with a Canon EOS 1D Mark III and an EF 800mm F/5.6 L IS lens. The first shots show a winter plumaged Spotted Sandpiper using some pond sliders as stepping stones.