A birder and photographer in Lethbridge, Alta., had his photo selected to appear on the cover of the 2025 Birds Canada calendar.
David Scott has been taking photos of the feathered animals for nearly 20 years, with this one image being his masterpiece.
“I submitted this shot, a buff-breasted sandpiper taken at Frank Lake, which is about a half hour this side of Calgary in Foothills County. It’s one of my favourite birds, which made this all the more special.”
Scott’s photo was selected to headline a the national calendar, despite thousands of other submissions taking aim at the same target.
“For this edition of the calendar, we had over 2,000 photos submitted across the country,” said Jody Allair, director of communications with Birds Canada.
He says Scott’s image was one that needed to be recognized. Meanwhile, Scott says a series of happy coincidences led to the newly-immortalized image.
“When I crouched down, I didn’t know the bird was going to kind of approach me so closely. So, I was really pleased when I got this shot. It’s not lost on me that if this bird had been out on a mud flat, which they often are, it wouldn’t grace the cover of the calendar and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
The buff-breasted sandpiper is rare in Alberta, making the image even more incredible.
“You only see it passing through Alberta,” said Scott. “They breed on the tundra from Alaska to Nunavut and then they winter in South America, kind of southern Brazil, northern Argentina, that area.”
Birds Canada says the species is in sharp decline, with a high risk of extinction.
“This is actually a declining species in Canada and just a couple days ago, the (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List update mentioned buff-breasted sandpipers. They’ve now been listed as a vulnerable species worldwide. In Canada, we’ve seen a 58-per cent population decline since 1970, so this is a bird we’re seeing fewer and fewer of all the time,” said Allair.
He says he hopes the calendar, and Scott’s photo, can bring awareness to the diminishing species.
To find the calendar, check out birdscanada.org.