The Spotted Sandpiper
"Across the narrow beach we flit,
One little sandpiper and I
And fast I gather, bit by bit
The scattered driftwood, bleached and dry."
-- Celia Thaxter
The Spotted Sandpiper (Actitus macularia) is a small bird of
7 to 8 inches in length which, with tail wagging, teeters as it perches
on branches, or walks on ground, logs, or rocks. It is not fussy as are
most of its fascinating tribe. Sandy shores, rocky coasts, mud flats,
plowed fields, or golf courses are all attractive to these waders. Not as
gregarious as other sandpipers, it does not gather in great flocks, but
trips alone, teetering as it goes as if too delicately balanced. Many other
shore birds are streaked, but this species is the only one with round,
black spots like a thrush. The wing stroke is shallow, fast quivering, with
a stiff bowed appearance. As they fly, they utter a sharp peet-weet call.
A distinctive characteristic for identification is the constant teetering
while walking.
In late April and May their shrill peet-weet can be heard overhead in the
night sky, often the first sign that the "spotties" are back. When they
arrive, the scrappy males fight with each other like little roosters until
their affairs are settled and nesting begins.
The nest is a depression in the ground among the weeds or under a bush with
no lining; or some may be well lined with grass or weeds. There are four
spotted, pear-shaped eggs, the small ends usually lying together as in the
design of a four-leaf clover. Because of their protective color of creamy
white with dark splotches, they are hard to see among the stones, pebbles,
or dried vegetation. Both sexes incubate, and after fifteen to sixteen days,
the most appealing babies hatch. They dry out in less than half an hour,
becoming soft and fluffy, and are able to run around with their parents.
At the least sign of danger they hide immediately.
In FIELDBOOK OF NATURAL HISTORY, Dr. E. Laurence Palmer says the following
about their diet: "Food (consists) of small animal matter, chiefly insects,
including army worms, grasshoppers, caterpillars, cutworms, cabbage worms,
beetles and grubs." He concludes, ". . . entirely useful. Protected by law
and worthy of even more protection through the southern part of its range."
In late summer, the young of the spotted sandpiper look very much like their
parents, being olive-brown (bronzy, one author calls it) above and whitish
below, with white eyebrows. Like their parents at this time of year, they
have no spots, for the breeding plumage of the adults has been molted for
a less distinctive garb. Individually they wander up and down the shores
and elsewhere, dining on all sorts of insects, crustaceans, small fish, and
other tiny creatures that infest the shorelines.
The spotted sandpiper is an early migrant, some of them reaching Mexico and
South America by the end of July. Others do not leave the northern beaches
until early October. Winter finds them scattered from the warm beaches of
the south Atlantic and gulf states and coast of California, down to Bolivia
and southern Brazil.
-- by Marie L. Atkinson
REFERENCES:
Field Guide to Western Birds
Roger Tory Peterson
National Geographic
Olin Sewall Pettingill, Jr.