LEAST (BUT NOT LAST) SANDPIPERS ON ABACO

October 5, 2017 by Rolling Harbour

LEAST (BUT NOT LAST) SANDPIPERS ON ABACO

There are 23 sandpiper species recorded for Abaco. Of those, 4 or 5 are vanishingly rare vagrants recorded once or twice in recent history (i.e. since about 1950).

Discounting those, the ones you are likely to encounter range from the large (whimbrel, yellowlegs, dowitchers, stilts) to the small. Or, in the case of the least sandpiper, the least big of all. They are bigly little.

The binomial name of the least sandpiper – Calidris minutilla – is an apt clue to their size, the second part being Latin for “very small”. On Abaco, they are fairly common winter visitors, and each season a handful of them make their home on the beach at Delphi, where these photos were taken.

Along with their small sandpiper compadres such as SANDERLING, these busy, bustling birds of the shoreline are the ones known as “peeps” (also as stints).

Least Sandpipers breed in the northern tundra areas of North America. Like many or most shorebirds, newly hatched chicks are able to fend for themselves very quickly. It sounds unlikely I know, but within a couple of weeks or so they have fledged.

The birds forage on mudflats, in the tideline on beaches, and in wrack. They will probe into soft sand, sometimes the full length of their beak. They will even burrow right under weed to get at the concealed goodies. Their diet consists mainly of small crustaceans, insects, and snails.

Credits: All photos by Charles Skinner (contributor to “The Birds of Abaco”) except the wrack-burrowers above, by Keith Salvesen (also on the Delphi Beach).

WORLD SHOREBIRDS DAY – ABACO’S 33 SHOREBIRD SPECIES (2) – SANDPIPERS

September 7, 2014 by Rolling Harbour

WORLD SHOREBIRDS DAY: ABACO’S 33 SHOREBIRD SPECIES (2)

Yesterday I featured 8 of the larger, longer-billed species among Abaco’s 33 shorebirds. Plus one cute Wilson’s Plover chick as page-bait! A number of those are classified as sandpipers. To see them, click HERE. Today it’s the turn of the smaller sandpiper species, little birds with long beaks for their size that in general help differentiate them from the stubby-beaked plover species. To recap, here is the main Abaco shorebird checklist of 26 species (birds previously featured in bold):

The codes will tell you, for any particular bird, when you may see it (P = permanent, WR = winter resident, TR = transient, V = vagrant); whether it breeds (B) on Abaco; and your chance of seeing it, graded from easy (1) to vanishingly unlikely (5).

Black-necked Stilt Himantopus mexicanus PR B 3
American Avocet Recurvirostra americana WR 4
American Oystercatcher Haematopus palliatus PR B 2
Black-bellied Plover Pluvialis squatarola WR 1
American Golden-Plover Pluvialis dominica TR 4
Wilson’s Plover Ochthodromus wilsonia PR B 2
Semipalmated Plover Charadrius semipalmatus WR 2
Piping Plover Charadrius melodus WR 3
Killdeer Charadrius vociferus WR 2
Spotted Sandpiper Actitis macularius WR 1
Solitary Sandpiper Tringa solitaria WR 2
Greater Yellowlegs Tringa melanoleuca WR 2
Willet Tringa semipalmata PR B 2
Lesser Yellowlegs Tringa flavipes WR 3
Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres PR 2
Red Knot Calidris canutus WR 3
Sanderling Calidris alba WR 1
Dunlin Calidris alpina WR 2
Least Sandpiper Calidris minutilla WR 2
White-rumped Sandpiper Calidris fuscicollis TR 3
Semipalmated Sandpiper Calidris pusilla TR 2
Western Sandpiper Calidris Mauri TR 2
Short-billed Dowitcher Limnodromus griseus WR 1
Long-billed Dowitcher Limnodromus scolopaceus WR 4
Wilson’s Snipe Gallinago delicata WR 3
Wilson’s Phalarope Phalaropus tricolor V 4

The other 7 species of shorebird recorded for Abaco – all transients or vagrants – are: Upland Sandpiper TR 4, Whimbrel TR 4, Hudsonian Godwit V5, Marbled Godwit V5, Buff-breasted Sandpiper V5, Pectoral Sandpiper TR 3, Stilt Sandpiper TR 3

SANDPIPERS

Of the sandpiper species shown below, 9 of the 10 are ones that, at the right time and in the right place, you may see on Abaco. The tenth, the Wilson’s Phalarope, is the first specimen ever recorded for Abaco and as far as is known this is the only photo of it (props to Woody Bracey for this accomplished ‘get’). Again, some of the birds shown below were photographed on the Delphi Club beach.

SPOTTED SANDPIPER Actitis macularius WR 1

SOLITARY SANDPIPER Tringa solitaria WR 2

RUDDY TURNSTONE Arenaria interpres PR 2

RED KNOT Calidris canutus (non-breeding plumage) WR 3

SANDERLING Calidris alba WR 1

LEAST SANDPIPER Calidris minutilla WR 2

WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER Calidris fuscicollis TR 3 White-rumped Sandpiper, Abaco - Tony Hepburn

SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER Calidris pusilla TR 2

WESTERN SANDPIPER Calidris Mauri TR 2

WILSON’S PHALAROPE Phalaropus tricolor V 4

RELATED POSTS

RUDDY TURNSTONES

LEAST SANDPIPERS

Photo Credits: Tom Sheley, D Robertson, Becky Marvil, Craig Nash, RH, Tony Hepburn, Bruce Hallett, Woody Bracey

LEAST, BUT NOT LAST: THE SMALLEST SANDPIPER

May 12, 2013 by Rolling Harbour

LEAST, BUT NOT LAST: THE SMALLEST SANDPIPER

The LEAST SANDPIPER (Calidris minutilla) is the smallest shorebird, the definitive “peep”. An adult is only about 6″ long. They are to be found in pairs or groups, busily foraging in the sand and seaweed. Often they will mix in with other shorebirds. These birds nest in scrapes close to the water, with both parents involved in incubating the eggs. The female will usually leave the nest before the young birds fledge – perhaps (bizarrely?) sometimes even before the eggs hatch. Deal with it, male Least Sandpipers. Fortunately the hatchlings can feed themselves very soon, and are able to fly within two weeks of birth.

The “peep” call will no doubt be instantly familiar, although how to differentiate between the various types of sandpiper may be more of a problem… Here’s a short recording via Xeno-Canto (credit: Mike Nelson)