escaping one great danger at least, namely, the notice of the
countless jaegers, both parasitic and pomarine. These robbers
subsist almost entirely during the breeding period on the young
and eggs of other birds, and cruise continually back and forth
over the sandpipers' nesting ground, looking for the least
telltale feather, bit of wind-blown down, or other object which
might afford a clue to the whereabouts of a nest.
Herbert W. Brandt found only one nest of the Baird sandpiper near Hooper
Bay, Alaska, which he tells me--
Was on a dry mossy ridge amid the dunes and was partially concealed
by the surrounding curly grass. It was flimsily constructed of
grass stems and filled with a scant handful of small leaves of the
dwarf birch and blueberry, together with a few adjacent
reindeer-moss stems. The measurements of this nest were: Inside
diameter 2-1/2 inches, and depth perhaps 2 inches.
_Eggs._--The Baird sandpiper lays ordinarily four eggs, occasionally
only three. These vary in shape from ovate or ovate pyriform to
subovate, and they have a slight gloss. In color they often resemble
certain types of western sandpipers' eggs, as they are usually of a
decidedly reddish tone; but they are considerably larger. The ground
color varies from "pinkish buff" to "pale pinkish buff" or from "olive
buff" to "cartridge buff." Three quite different types are represented
in my collection. In the western sandpiper type the "pinkish buff"
ground color is quite evenly covered over the whole egg with small,
elongated spots, somewhat thicker at the larger end and having a spiral
tendency, of "Hay's russet" and "chestnut brown," with a few underlying
spots of "brownish drab." Another set has a "cartridge buff" ground
color, which is unevenly covered, chiefly at the larger end, with small
spots of duller browns, "bister," "Saccardo's umber," and light shades
of "brownish drab." This seems to be the commonest type. An unusually
beautiful set has a "pinkish buff" ground color, sparingly sprinkled
with minute brown dots and boldly blotched with great, irregular
splashes of deep, rich browns, "chestnut," "chocolate," and "liver
brown," overlying large splashes of various shades of "vinaceous gray."
The measurements of 54 eggs average 33.1 by 23.8 millimeters; the eggs
showing the four extremes measure =33.5= by 24.4, 34.3 by =24.6= and
=30= by =22= millimeters.
_Young._--Incubation is shared by both sexes, but we have no data as to
its duration. Mr. Dixon (1917) found the male bird covering the eggs
more often than the female, and others have reported finding the male
caring for the young. Mr. Dixon (1917) says of the young:
The young sandpipers were found feeding in the shallower pools,
where the water was less than 1 inch deep. At times as many as five
were noted in an area 1 yard square. They congregated along the
water's edge, picking up, as the tide slowly receded, many bits of
food. The nature of this provender I could not make out, although
the young birds would often come within 20 feet of me when I
remained motionless for a few minutes. The old birds were much more
shy, often taking flight or retreating to distant gravel bars upon
my approach. Considerable time was spent by both young and old in
making short flights about the harbor. These flights alternated
with periods of food getting, and were seemingly in preparation for
the fall migration. It was only a few days then until the bulk of
the species left on their southward journey.
_Plumages._--The downy young Baird sandpiper is well colored to escape
detection on the brown tundra moss. The crown and upper parts are
variegated with black and "tawny" in an irregular pattern and dotted
with white terminal tufts; the crown is centrally "tawny," with a median
black stripe, and is bordered with black; the forehead, back to eyes,
sides of the head and all under parts are pure white; there is a black
spot in the center of the forehead, a black stripe from the bill,
through the eye, to the occiput and another below it and parallel to
it; there is a white superciliary stripe and some white mottling on the
back of the head and neck.
The juvenal plumage is equally concealing. The crown is sepia with buffy
edgings; the back and scapulars are dark sepia with broad white edgings;
the wing is like the adult except that the coverts and tertials are
edged with "pinkish buff" and tipped with white; the under parts are
like the adult but the breast is more pinkish buff and more faintly
streaked. A partial postjuvenal molt, including most of the body plumage
and some of the scapulars, wing coverts, and tertials and takes place in
October or later. I have seen birds in full juvenal plumage as late as
October 3; young birds migrate in this plumage. At the first prenuptial
molt the following spring young birds become indistinguishable from
adults.
Adults have a partial prenuptial molt in April and May, including only
part of the body plumage. The postnuptial molt begins in July, when the
body plumage is molted before the birds migrate; the wings are molted
after the birds reach their winter home, from December to February, not
long before they started to migrate north again. I have seen birds in
full nuptial plumage as early as May 1 and as late as July 29, and in
full winter plumage as late as April 5. The adult nuptial and winter
plumages are somewhat different; the colors are brighter and richer in
the spring and the markings are more distinct; in the fall the upper
parts are nearly uniformly buffy brownish with dusky shaft streaks; the
chest and sides of the breast are dull brownish buff and not distinctly
streaked.
_Food._--Preble and McAtee (1923) found in the stomachs of three Baird
sandpipers, taken on the Pribilof Islands, amphipods, algae, ground
beetles, and a weevil. Mr. McAtee (1911) includes this species among
those that eat mosquito larvae, crane-fly larvae, grasshoppers, and the
clover-root curculio, all injurious insects. It feeds on the open mud
flats with other species of sandpipers, but seems to prefer to feed
about the edges of the shallow inland pools or where the muddy flats are
partially overgrown with grass. William Brewster (1925) watched some of
them feeding, of which he says:
On first noticing me draw near they stood erect, with upstretched
necks, regarding me intently and distrustfully, but their feeding
operations were resumed soon after I ceased to advance. By
successive runs, 8 or 10 feet in length and often executed very
swiftly, they moved about quickly in various directions over soft
mud or through shallow water, frequently stooping to pick up small
morsels of food, but not once using their bills for probing under
ground or water.
_Voice._--Dr. Charles W. Townsend (1905) says that the note, which he
heard several times, seemed to him "exactly like that of the
semipalmated sandpiper, a rather shrill, trilling whistle." Mr. Brewster
(1925) says that--
the _kreep_ call they utter in flight is sufficiently unlike that
of any other wader of similar size and general coloring to be of
service as a means of field identification when the birds are seen
on wing. It is appreciably different from the call of any other
sandpiper known to me, although not so very unlike that of the
sanderling.
_Field marks._--The Baird sandpiper is one of the most difficult of all
this group to recognize in the field, because it has no prominent
distinguishing field marks peculiar to itself. It has characters in
common with any one of several small sandpipers. In color and general
appearance it is most like the least sandpiper; it is decidedly larger,
but size is of little value unless the two are side by side for
comparison; it is lighter colored above, more extensively buffy on the
breast, and has darker legs. It is a size larger than the semipalmated
and western sandpipers, more buffy on the breast than either, and has a
shorter bill in proportion to its size than the latter. It is about the
size of the white-rumped sandpiper, but is less distinctly streaked on
the crown and back; the buff breast of the Baird will distinguish it
when standing or even in flight; and the white rump of _fuscicollis_ is
a sure flight mark when visible. From the red-backed sandpiper, about
the same size, it can be distinguished by its shorter and straighter
bill and by marked color differences. It might be mistaken for a female
pectoral, but the latter is more conspicuously striped above, more like
a snipe in this respect, the crown is darker, more contrasted, and the
breast is darker, more abruptly separated from the white belly, and more
sharply streaked with dusky; when flying the pectoral shows more white
in the wings. The Baird is but slightly smaller than the buff-breasted
sandpiper and very much like it; but Prof. William Rowan (MSS.) has
pointed out some differences. The patterns of the backs are very
similar, but the buff breasted has a much paler crown and lacks the
white throat and eye stripe, as well as the clear-cut white sides and
black center of the rump of the Baird. The buff breasted has yellow legs
and the Baird has black. The Baird shows no white in the wings in
flight. Young Bairds in juvenal plumage are easily recognized by the
scaled appearance of the mantle produced by dark feathers with broad
white edges.
_Fall._--Baird sandpipers leave their northern breeding grounds rather
early. Mr. Murdoch (1885) reported the last one seen at Point Barrow on
August 12, and Mr. Dixon (1917) saw none after August 15 in northern
Alaska. E. A. Preble (1908) saw several flocks on migration at Great
Slave Lake as early as July 10.
The main flight seems to be directly south through the Mackenzie Valley
and between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River to Mexico and
South America, where it probably migrates down the west coast to its
winter home. But the route is also extended both east and west in the
fall. Some birds fly southeastward, through the Great Lakes, to the
coast of New England, whence they apparently migrate over the ocean to
South America. Others migrate southward through the extreme western
States.
Mr. Brewster (1925) says that they "visit Lake Umbagog (Maine) early in
September, appearing oftenest during the first week in the month." My
Massachusetts dates run from August 7 to September 15. E. W. Hadeler
records it in his Ohio notes from September 2 to October 11; and Edward
S. Thomas has seen it there as early as August 12. It is an abundant
migrant in Manitoba; we collected adults there on July 29; and C. G.
Harrold tells me that birds passing through in August and September are
practically all juveniles. Professor Rowan refers to it as probably the
most plentiful wader in Alberta in the first half of September; he has
taken it there as late as November 8. J. A. Munro calls it a regular
fall migrant at Okanagan Landing, British Columbia; his earliest and
latest dates are July 16 and September 18. J. H. Bowles (1918) observed
it on the Tacoma Flats, Washington, from July 26 to September 5, and
says:
They were found in singles, pairs, or trios, most often associating
with the semipalmated plover (_Aegialitis semipalmata_) when any
were to be found. When flying with a company of the other small
sandpipers they would separate as soon as the flock alighted to
feed, the Baird's going to comparatively dry ground for their food
while the others waded about in the water and at the water's edge.
They could not have been called common, but from one to three or
four were to be found on almost any day.
John T. Nichols has observed Baird sandpipers on the Pacific Ocean and
writes to me as follows:
August 6, 1926, 52° 19' N., 137° 42' W., three to six birds of this
species came about a ship bound southeast for Seattle, flying with
and parallel to her course. One, apparently misjudging her speed,
was killed by striking the rigging forward. Perhaps the Baird
sandpiper is comparatively scarce on the Pacific coast due to an
offshore migration route.
_Winter._--According to Prof. Wells W. Cooke (1912) this sandpiper
reaches its winter home in September. Chile seems to be its principal
winter home, where it has been taken repeatedly in the high mountains at
10,000 to 12,000 feet and once at over 13,000.
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--Northeastern Asia and North and South America; accidental in
England.
_Breeding range._--North to the northeastern coast of Siberia (probably
Koliutschin Island and Cape Serdze Kamen); northern Alaska (Wainwright,
Point Barrow, Camden Bay, Barter Island, and Demarcation Point); Yukon
(Herschel Island); Mackenzie (Franklin Bay, Baillie Island, and
Cambridge Bay); and southern Baffin Island. East to Baffin Island and
probably Greenland (Etah). South to Mackenzie (Cambridge Bay, Bernard
Harbor, Fort Anderson, and Peel River); and Alaska (Cape Prince of Wales
and Point Dall). West to Alaska (Cape Prince of Wales and Point Dall);
and northeastern Siberia (probably Koliutschin Island).
_Winter range._--North to Chile (Tarapaca); and Argentina (Tucuman,
Cordoba, and Buenos Aires). East to Argentina (Buenos Aires). South to
Argentina (Buenos Aires); and Chile (Talcahuano). West to Chile
(Talcahuano, Huasco, and Tarapaca).
_Spring migration._--In spring the Baird sandpiper is practically
unknown on the Atlantic coast, the route being up the Mississippi
Valley, the plains States, and (to a lesser degree) the Pacific coast.
Early dates of arrival are: Missouri, Monteer, March 20, and near
Boonville, April 16; Ohio, Painesville, April 25, Oberlin, April 28, and
Cleveland, May 8; Michigan, Vicksburg, April 15; Iowa, Sioux City, April
9, Mason City, April 19, and Marshalltown, April 25; Minnesota, Waseca,
May 10, and Hutchinson, May 18; Texas, Boerne, March 16, and Electra,
April 9; Kansas, Emporia, March 27; Nebraska, Gibbon, March 19, Lincoln,
March 23, and Callaway, April 7; South Dakota, Forestburg, April 6, and
Brown County, April 18; North Dakota, Jamestown, May 1, and Charlson,
May 4; Saskatchewan, Indian Head, May 9, and Orestwynd, May 10;
Mackenzie, Fort Resolution, May 19, Fort Simpson, May 20, and Fort
Providence, May 26; Arizona, Fort Verde, May 5; Colorado, Loveland,
March 29; Wyoming, Cheyenne, April 8, and Laramie, April 23; Montana,
Knowlton, May 12, and Bitterroot Valley, May 18; Alberta, Flagstaff,
April 16, Alliance, April 24, and Fort Chipewyan, May 24; California,
Santa Barbara, April 27; Washington, Dayton, April 11; British Columbia,
Chilliwack, April 29, and Okanagan Landing, April 30; and Alaska,
Admiralty Island, May 12, Kowak River, May 20, Demarcation Point, May
23, Nulato, May 27, Cape Prince of Wales, May 28, and Point Barrow, May
29.
Late dates of spring departure are: Mexico, city of Mexico, May 19;
Guerrero, Iguala, June 1; Ohio, Youngstown, June 2; Michigan, Detroit,
May 24; Iowa, Sioux City, June 6; Texas, San Angelo, May 15, and Ingram,
May 26; Kansas, Wichita, May 20; Nebraska, Neligh, May 26, and
Valentine, May 30; South Dakota, Vermilion, May 24, and Sioux Falls,
June 11; North Dakota, Charlson, May 22, and Jamestown, June 4;
Saskatchewan, Indian Head, June 2, and Quill Lake, June 16; Wyoming,
Yellowstone Park, June 3; Alberta, Fort Chipewyan, June 1; and British
Columbia, Okanagan Landing, May 10, Vaseaux Lake, May 18, and Sumas, May
19.
_Fall migration._--Early dates of fall arrival are: British Columbia,
Okanagan Landing, July 7; Washington, Wrights Peak, July 21, Blaine,
August 4, and Tacoma, August 6; California, Santa Barbara, July 25;
Lower California, San Jose del Cabo, September 3; Alberta, Strathmore,
July 31; Wyoming, Toltec, July 27; Colorado, Denver, July 21, Boulder
County, July 27, and El Paso County, July 29; Saskatchewan, Maple Creek,
July 17; Manitoba, Oak Lake, July 12, and Red Deer River, July 23; South
Dakota, Forestburg, July 25; Nebraska, Callaway, August 4, and Lincoln,
August 9; Texas, San Angelo, July 20; Ontario, Toronto, July 28;
Michigan, Charity Island, July 9; Ohio, Bay Point, July 3; Illinois,
Chicago, July 2; Massachusetts, Monomoy Island, July 14; New York,
Montauk, August 14, Locust Grove, August 18, Onondaga Lake, August 27;
Pennsylvania, Beaver, August 21, Erie, August 22; Mexico, Zacatecas,
August 16, Colonia Garcia, September 4, and Janos River, September 5;
and Patagonia, Arroyo Seco, Rio Negro, September 6, and Huanuluan,
September 12.
Late dates of fall departures are: Alaska, Point Barrow, September 4;
British Columbia, Comox, September 15, and Okanagan Landing, October 18;
Washington, Tacoma, September 27; Oregon, Netarts Bay, September 12;
California, Monterey, October 24; Colorado, Boulder County, September
25, and Barr, October 5; Saskatchewan, Indian Head, September 21;
Manitoba, Oak Lake, September 5, and Shoal Lake, September 14; North
Dakota, Charlson, September 21; Nebraska, Valentine, October 10, and
Lincoln, November 3; Kansas, Lawrence, October 26; Texas, Tom Green and
Concho Counties, October 20; Iowa, Burlington, October 2, and Keokuk,
October 14; Ontario, St. Thomas, October 3, Toronto, October 10, and
Plover Mills, October 20; Ohio, Painesville, October 11, and New Bremen,
October 28; Illinois, Chicago, October 2; Missouri, Independence,
October 13; Maine, Warren Island, September 20, and Bangor, November 1;
Massachusetts, Cambridge, October 30; Connecticut, West Haven, October
28, and Stratford, November 3; New York, Shinnecock Bay, October 31, and
Canandaigua, November 20; and Pennsylvania, Erie, October 6.
_Casual records._--The Baird sandpiper has several times been taken or
observed in various parts of Mexico so that it seems reasonable to
believe that at least a part of the birds migrate over that country. In
other Central American countries and in the West Indies it is rare.
Among the records are: Costa Rica (Cerro de la Candelaria, October 1900,
Volcano Irazu, June 8, 1894, La Estrella de Cartago, November 5, 1907,
and San Jose, September 18); and Cuba (Cocos Island). It also has been
detected on the Galapagos Islands (Barrington Island, October 6, 1897);
Lesser Antilles (Dominica, October 1, 1904); Virginia (Four-mile Run,
September 3 and 25, 1894); New Jersey (Stone Harbor, September 5, 1898);
Quebec (Montreal, September 17, 1892); New Brunswick (St. Andrews,
September 10, 1901); and England (Rye Harbor, Sussex, November 11,
1900).
_Egg dates._--Alaska: 27 records, June 9 to August 24; 14 records, June
19 to July 2. Arctic Canada: 20 records, June 10 to July 21; 10 records,
June 19 to 26.
PISOBIA MINUTILLA (Vieillot)
LEAST SANDPIPER
HABITS
_Contributed by Charles Wendell Townsend_
This least of all our sandpipers is so little smaller than the
semipalmated sandpiper and differs so slightly from it in other ways
that the two are generally confused in life. Their small size, and their
notes have given them the familiar name of "peep," but near New York
they are also called "oxeye." Who has not been gladdened by the sight of
flocks of these gentle little birds scampering along the beach or
diligently feeding in the tidal flats and in the salt marshes!
_Spring._--The duration of the spring migration is much more brief than
that of the autumnal one. The birds are hastening to their breeding
grounds and the least sandpiper is only a month in passing through. In
New England this is from about May 5 to June 7. At this time the birds
are more apt to be found on the beaches than in the fall, although they
are found in greatest abundance in the marshes.
_Courtship._--The most noticeable part of the courtship of the least
sandpiper is the song. I have observed it on the breeding grounds in
Nova Scotia and in Labrador, as well as during the spring migration in
New England. The bird springs up into the air on quivering, down-curved
wings and circles about, now lower, now higher, reaching at times a
height of 50 or more yards. In the air it emits a short sweet trill
which is rapidly repeated, and with each song burst the wings are
rapidly vibrated. On one occasion in Labrador the bird remained in the
air circling and repeatedly trilling for five minutes by the watch, and
continued to trill after it had reached the ground. Immediately it was
up again, trilling, and, as I left the bog, it followed me, still
trilling.
This courtship song has been described at great length and with much
appreciation by Robert T. Moore (1912) from intimate studies made by him
on five nesting birds in the Magdalen Islands, and he has recorded these
songs in musical notation. He ranks it high among bird songs and dwells
on its tremulous and pathetic qualities. He observed one that rendered
its entire song from the ground within a foot of his hand. "It
consisted of a series of trills, which ascended just one octave on a
minor chord. The tone quality was pure and sweet and rendered pathetic
by the minor chord, which served as its medium." He says of the records
he made of the flight songs of three birds that--
Each in its notes, progressions, and even time is totally different
from the others, yet, without sight of the bird, I would instantly
recognize them as songs of the least sandpiper. This is due to the
fact that the quality of tone is constant in all, being pure and
sweet, the tempo is aways extremely fast, the notes being delivered
with great rapidity, and the pitch high. Trills and runs are
characteristic and make an additional recognition quality.
All these observations were made on birds that were both incubating and
singing. On one occasion only did he see two birds together.
This flight song piped overhead and was sung over and over again
with a tremulous zest. Alternating with it, was repeated for long
intervals an excited call of two notes. We glanced up and for the
first time beheld two adult least sandpipers together. Alternately
they flapped and soared and circled about in rapturous fashion. For
several minutes the alternation of song and call continued without
break of any kind. Sometimes the song was given three times
consecutively and followed by as many as 30 or 40 repetitions of
the call, this in turn to be followed by the song again.
W.E. Saunders (1902) has recorded the courtship as observed by him at
Sable Island. He was there between May 16 and 23, too early for nesting.
He says: "I found them invariably in pairs, evidently mated, and often
sitting so close together that two could be obtained at a single shot if
desired." To his ear the song notes resembled somewhat those of the
spotted sandpiper. He says of the courtship flight:
Sometimes both birds would be in the air at once, but whether the
female gave the note as well as the male, I could not definitely
ascertain without shooting the birds, which I was very loath to do.
The note would be given continuously for perhaps three or four
minutes, during which time the bird flies slowly with steady
flapping of the wings, mounting in the air gradually until, when
watching them in the evening, one loses sight of them in the gloom.
_Nesting._--The least sandpiper makes its nest either in wet grassy or
sphagnum bogs close to a pond or tidal water; or on dry uplands, often
among low bushes. In either case the nest is a simple affair. P.B.
Philipp (1925) describes its method of construction as observed by him
in the Magdalen Islands:
The bird picks out a spot in the wet moss of a bog or in the dry
leaves of a ridge, and scratches a shallow hollow in which it sits,
and, by rapidly turning, molds a depression of the required depth.
Which of the pair does this I have never determined, but the other
bird is usually present, standing close to the nest-builder and
offering encouragement by a low, rapid twittering.
The nest depression in the moss is generally lined with dry leaves,
although these may be very few in number, and a little dried grass. The
internal dimensions of the nest as given by Audubon (1840) are:
Diameter, 2-1/2 inches; depth, 1-1/4 inches.