Photo Credit @melissagroo “What a gesture of ancient faith and present courage such a flight is, what a defiance of circumstance and earth—land wing and hostile sea, the fading land behind, the unknown and the distant articulate and imperious in the bright aerial blood.” ~ Henry Beston Semipalmated Sandpiper, Utqiagvik, Alaska. These lovely shorebirds winter mostly in South America, making a nonstop flight of nearly 2,000 miles from New England or eastern Canada to the South American coast. Photographed while on assignment for @smithsonianmagazine last year. I was walking to my blind placed by @owlresearchinstitute, to photograph snowy owls at the nest, when I spotted this bird on the tundra. I quickly dropped to the ground and laid flat for a few photos of her. I loved the flowers—which I have learned from @lastcurlew are western coltsfoot. It’s actually a weed whose flowers and leaves, interestingly, have been used as cough medicine for almost 2,000 years. https://proshopperz.com

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