Naerlande Sor

Last week was my last visit to Naerlande. It was wet, cold and raining ... and I was there with my son, Ali for our short Sunday drive before dinner. Since it was raining, I decided that there was no real need to pack up the usual gear but in the end decided to lug the 40D coupled with a 150mm in any case.

We drove for almost 40 minutes before reaching the beach, the rain did not let up. We decided to peek out on the beach. There was a mass of waders flitting about eagerly feeding amongst the kelp washed ashore. They flew up and around at every perceived danger, made a circle and came back to the very same spot. There was no once else on the beach except us. Autumn beach walking is very popular here, I guess not so when it's pouring.

Equipped with only the 150mm, options for wader photography was rather limited. And it was raining. Ali quickly ran back to the car when he decided it was enough waders for the day, while I decided to hang about and watch.

At one point I was 5-6 feet away from the birds, with the rain and abundance of food, they did not seem to bother too much and just continued feeding. I stayed low on the ground and made a few shots and only left when the wind started to pick up and rain started to get heavier.

Most of the waders were Dunlin, Sanderling, Ruddy Turnstone, Red Knot, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Common Ringed Plover and Bar-tailed Godwit. The interesting thing about wader watching is that you sometimes don't know what's in the flock. Being so close to them pose great possibilities but then it was raining heavily and the wind chilling ...

Text and images by Nazeri Abghani/01Sep2013