Bird of the Week – Red Knot

One of the parts of this weekly column that WC likes is that sometimes WC is lucky enough to photograph new Alaska birds. Milo Burcham, a terrific nature photographer based in Cordova, Alaska, allowed WC to tag along on  boat trip out to the mudflats west of the mouth of the Copper River in May 2016. The target was Red Knots, a handsome, but very spooky, shorebird.

Red Knots, Egg Islands, Cordova, Alaska

We found them. Handsome birds. And maybe even more spooky than advertised. There are big numbers to begin with, and if you get closer than 200 meters, they are gone. This photo was taken with a 500mm boosted with a 1.4 teleconverter, effectively a 700mm lens. And then in post-processing this is a 50% crop, so effectively 1400mm of magnification. Despite the distance, these birds flew about 1 second after the shot.

Red Knots and Milo Burcham, Egg Islands, Cordova

Red Knots are an exceptionally long distance migrants. WC has seen them on Tierra del Fuego, at the southernmost tip of South America, and in Barrow, the northernmost point in Alaska. Red Knots time their migration to food availability, placing them at great risk from climate change.

For more bird photos, please visit Frozen Feather Images.

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