Upland Sandpiper Photos

Photography by Terry Sohl

My Favorite: Upland Sandpipers are a species that are very easy to observe in South Dakota in the summer months, given their habit of perching prominently on fence posts. However, as a species of the grasslands, what's tougher is to get a photo of them actually on the ground, in that habitat. My favorite photo of an Upland Sandpiper is the one below, because it shows the bird in its natural habitat, and it was taken very close to home in Minnehaha County, South Dakota, where they are much less common than they are further west in the state.

Now the REAL challenge down below...I like to put a blurb with each photo describing what it is. For each bird on a fence post, can I come up with a different way of describing it? :-)

Upland Sandpiper - Bartramia longicauda


Upland Sandpiper 1	Upland Sandpiper 2	Upland Sandpiper 3	Upland Sandpiper 4
July 2008	July 2008	July 2008	July 4th, 2005
Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Lyman County, South Dakota
Bird in green summer grassland habitat	Upland Sandpiper on a wooden fence post	Sandpiper on a fence post with OOF background	Profile of a bird on a wooden fence post

Upland Sandpiper 5	Upland Sandpiper 6 (With Young)	Upland Sandpiper 7	Upland Sandpiper 8
July 2008	July 2008	July 2008	July 2008
Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota
Upland Sandpiper in grassland habitat	Upland Sandpiper defending young (out of frame)	Sandpiper parent with young chick	Sandpiper on a wooden fence post

Upland Sandpiper 9	Upland Sandpiper 10	Upland Sandpiper 11	Upland Sandpiper 12
July 5th, 2009	July 5th, 2009	July 5th, 2009	July 23rd, 2011
Kingsbury County, South Dakota	Kingsbury County, South Dakota	Kingsbury County, South Dakota	Fort Pierre National Grasslands, South Dakota
Profile of bird on fence post in bright sunlight	Sandpiper foraging in prairie habitat	Side view of a sandpiper on a wooden post	For something different, a bird facing RIGHT on a fence post

Upland Sandpiper 13	Upland Sandpiper 14	Upland Sandpiper 15	Upland Sandpiper 16
July 23rd, 2011	July 5th, 2010	July 5th, 2010	May 3rd, 2015
Fort Pierre National Grasslands, South Dakota	Badlands National Park, South Dakota	Badlands National Park, South Dakota	Kingsbury County, South Dakota
An Upland sandpiper on a METAL fence post	Bird in grassland habitat on hot summer day	Sandpiper in prairie habitat on a hot afternoon	Bird with over-the-shoulder look on a wooden fence post

Upland Sandpiper 17	Upland Sandpiper 18	Upland Sandpiper 19	Upland Sandpiper 20
June 27th, 2015	April 26th, 2019	April 26th, 2019	July 12th, 2021
Sully County, South Dakota	Fort Pierre National Grasslands, South Dakota	Fort Pierre National Grasslands, South Dakota	Buffalo Gap National Grasslands, South Dakota
Upland Sandpiper actually acting like a shorebird for a change	Bird blending in to the surrounding grassland habitat	Sandpiper on a funky-looking fence post	Vertical photo of an Upland Sandpiper on a fence post

Upland Sandpiper 21	Upland Sandpiper 22	Upland Sandpiper 23
July 12th, 2020	June 13th, 2020	June 13th, 2020
Kingsbury County, South Dakota	McCook County, South Dakota	McCook County, South Dakota
One-legged Upland Sandpiper on a wooden fence post	Upland Sandpiper on a wooden fence post with a rusty metal gate	Sandpiper enjoying the morning sun on a fence post