Piping Plover chick silhouette - New Jersey

Few days old Piping Plover chick exploring the beach at sunrise:

Piping Plover chick with a rising sun behind it showing off its down feathers  - New Jersey

Piping Plover chick with a rising sun behind it showing off its down feathers - New Jersey

Even though this particular beach wasn’t as productive as I had originally hoped, after finding a lone family of Piping Plovers with just hatched chicks, I decided to come back again but this time before the sunrise to try to photograph it as the sun was coming up. It was a huge gamble as there was no guarantee that I will find them 24 hours later. There was no guarantee that the chicks will be cooperative enough to walk on the beach at sunrise, on and on and on 😜 As you can see, taking risks sometimes pays off as I got a photo that I had envisioned the day before🤩


Something I didn’t realize before is how “hairy” these young birds really are 😂 The backlit scene shows off the fuzz of their down feathers pretty well, don’t you think? 😍

Vertical crop of a fuzzy Piping Plover ( Charadrius melodus ) chick on the beach  - New Jersey

Vertical crop of a fuzzy Piping Plover ( Charadrius melodus ) chick on the beach - New Jersey

One thing I cannot decide is which crop I like the most.

Which crop do you prefer?

To me each one is unique on its own…

Close-up of a two day Piping Plover chick - NJ shore

Close-up of a one day Piping Plover chick - NJ shore

I’ve never realized how fuzzy/hairy these chicks are until I photographed them with a light behind them 🤩

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