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Red knots are medium-sized shorbirds with epic migrations that take many of them from their high Arctic breeding grounds to South American beaches. They pass through Southern California during a few weeks in spring and again in late summer and fall, and a few spend the winter. The birds immediately below are in transition between the rusty-bellied breeding plumage and the gray winter plumage (photographed in late August). I took many of the photos of winter-plumaged knots on an overcast day as the birds foraged busily like large sanderlings on the Coronado Peninsula, San Diego, California. The picture at lower left was taken near sunset on the beach at Honeymoon Island, near Tarpon Springs, Florida, at Fort DeSoto Park near St. Petersburg, Florida, and the partially molted knots and the backlit birds at lower left were at Bolsa Chica wetlands in coastal Orange County, California. |
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