Hudsonian Godwit, Limosa haemastica


Hudsonian Godwit

I took this distant and backlit picture of my first Hudsonian Godwit within a couple of hours of getting off the plane
in Anchorage on my first visit to Alaska. A few of them are regularly found during nesting season on a small island
in Westchester Lagoon, a popular recreation area next to the beach -- and they didn't seem to be predictably found
anywhere else. This species, described as "elusive" by BNA Online, nests in wet areas near the tree line in Canada
and Alaska, and winters in southern South America, migrating mostly across the midwestern prairie of the US and
Canada.