We had settled into a quiet spot on the edge of a stream in Kukak Bay, surrounded by the sweeping beauty of Katmai National Park during my Ultimate Coastal Brown Bears of Alaska workshop. In front of us, a male and female Coastal Brown Bear—two massive Grizzlies—grazed peacefully on coastal sedge grass.

But as the group focused intently on the bears, my attention drifted between a Greater Yellowlegs feeding along the stream's edge, a Savannah Sparrow that kept darting around in the long grass nearby, and a Golden-crowned Sparrow foraging on the top of a big rock. I found myself trying to get the workshop group excited about these little creatures—the shorebirds, the sparrows, the quiet moments in between the big-action shots. But, unsurprisingly, the bears were the stars of the show. I kept pointing out the smaller birds, hoping someone would catch my enthusiasm, but they were more fixated on the Grizzlies. It's hard to compete when you're in bear country.

And then, just as I was trying (unsuccessfully) to get someone else excited about the Savannah Sparrow, a Red-necked Phalarope appeared out of nowhere. It made a single, swift pass behind the group, flying in a perfect line parallel to us. I snapped off a quick burst of eight frames before it disappeared, never to be seen again. Of those eight shots, only one had a clear view without part of the bird covered by an out-of-focus person.

The Red-Necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) is a fascinating and often overlooked resident of the Alaskan coast, including the rich ecosystems of Katmai National Park. The females are the more colourful of the two sexes, and it's the males who do all the incubating and chick-rearing. They're not common in this part of Alaska, but during migration, you sometimes get lucky. These small, elegant shorebirds are particularly interesting for their unique foraging behaviour, often seen spinning rapidly on the water's surface to create a vortex that brings small invertebrates closer to the surface for easier feeding.

In Katmai National Park, the presence of Red-Necked Phalaropes is a testament to the park's incredible biodiversity and the health of its coastal and freshwater habitats. Their migratory journeys are epic, often travelling vast distances from their Arctic breeding grounds to warmer ocean waters for the winter.