Thought I'd share some more photos from our East Coast trip this past fall as part of Wild Bird Wednesday. One of the birds that we saw daily on the beach at our Cape Cod rental was the Ruddy Turnstone. There was a small flock of a dozen birds that combed the beach and the rocky breakwall throughout the day.
They were in their non-breeding plumage, which is a soft mottled brownish grey. I love how soft they look and the contrast with their bright orange legs.
As coastal birds, Ruddy Turnstones nest FAR into the Arctic Circle and migrate along the coasts down to their wintering grounds in California, Central America, the Caribbean and South America.
And, they live up to their name. Constantly flipping rocks, shells and seaweed clumps to find tasty morsels:
While this image isn't the best quality due to the light angle, it's one of my favorite images from the Cape Cod portion of our trip. I snapped it one evening while sitting on the breakwall. The turnstone was curious and stayed in that spot for quite awhile studying me. I love the sparkly quality of the photo and whenever I look at it I can smell the briny sea air...
(be sure to check out all the other great posts for WBW!)
