Least Sandpipers along the Great Miami River...

Great Miami River? Me? I'm all about the Little Miami, but over the past week, I've jumped rivers and have canoed and hiked the Great Miami near North Bend, Ohio with Paul Krusling trying to find and photograph the ten species of turtles that live there. Paul is an expert herpetologist who has been studying and researching reptiles and amphibians for most of his life. Currently he is one of three authors writing a comprehensive book on the turtles of Ohio. How on earth did I (who knows nothing about turtles) cross paths with Paul (who knows everything)? He's a birder too, and I met him while I was birding on Pinckney Island in South Carolina. Funny how I had to travel 12 hours to meet a Cincy birder. I will have more posts on Paul and the turtles soon, but for now, here is a quick look at a few Least Sandpipers foraging in the mudflats along the Great Miami River.

A Least Sandpiper forages in mudflats along a holding lake off the Great Miami River in the Oxbow region.

...although the tiniest of all the peeps, the Least Sandpiper is chunky with a wide little belly!

...in addition to being the smallest shorebird, Least Sandpipers are the only peeps with yellowish-green legs.

...here he is in a characteristic posture where he is dipping forward with a sharp bend in his legs.

...a lone Least Sandpiper forages on a floating algae mat.

…it’s amazing how the glimmer of a small flock of tiny birds across the water can make your heart jump. I don't get to see these tiny birds very often, so I was really excited when they came into view. I mostly bird the Little Miami River, which lacks the mudflats the Least Sandpipers love. I really enjoyed canoeing the Great Miami River. We went all the way to Indiana, and I saw much of the Oxbow region. I can already tell I will be returning to this area a lot. Photographing birds from a canoe is fun--a lot different from the stability of land, and even though these photos aren't that great, I would never have gotten this close sneaking up through the woods!