the mirror-like surface of the tide and quite 200 yards offshore,
we punted out to them in full anticipation of having at last fallen
in with phalaropes. Curiously, the trio proved to be dunlins, a
species I can not recall having seen contentedly swimming in deep
water on any other occasion.
DISTRIBUTION
_Breeding range._--Northern Europe: Iceland, the Faroes, British Isles,
northern coasts of Germany, northern Russia east to Kolguev,
Spitzbergen, and probably Nova Zembla. South to Holland and rarely to
northern Spain and northern Italy. Replaced by one or more other forms
in Siberia, to which Asiatic migrants probably belong.
_Winter range._--Great Britain, Madeira, the Canaries, the
Mediterranean, northern and eastern Africa as far south as Zanzibar, the
Red Sea, and perhaps India.
_Casual records._--Accidental in North America; Shinnecock Bay, Long
Island, New York, September 15, 1892; Chatham, Massachusetts, August 11,
1900. It has probably been many times overlooked.
_Egg dates._--Orkney Islands: 50 records, May 12 to June 27; 25 records,
May 20 to June 2. Iceland: 16 records, May 18 to June 16; 8 records,
June 3 to 12.
PELIDNA ALPINA SAKHALINA (Vieillot)
RED-BACKED SANDPIPER
HABITS
Although this sandpiper is certainly red-backed enough to deserve the
name, it seems to me that American dunlin would be a better name, as it
is only subspecifically distinct from the well-known European dunlin.
The doubtful question as to whether a third subspecies should be
recognized on the Pacific coast has been referred to under the preceding
form.
_Spring._--It is a hardy bird and perhaps a lazy bird for it winters
farther north than most of its tribe and makes shorter migrations than
any of the waders that breed in Arctic regions. From its winter range
well within the United States it migrates northward from Florida and the
Carolinas along the Atlantic coast to the Middle States, rarely to New
England, through the Great Lakes region, and along the west coast of
Hudson Bay to its summer home on the barren grounds. C. J. Pennock tells
me he has seen it in Florida, Wakulla County, as late as May 26; I found
it very abundant and in fine spring plumage on the coastal islands of
South Carolina on May 22 and 23; and I have seen it near Corpus Christi,
Texas, as late as May 29. These are all late dates, however, for the
migration starts in April and is generally completed in May. A single
bird which I saw on the coast of Louisiana on June 22, 1910, was a
nonbreeding loiterer. A. G. Lawrence and C. G. Harrold both record it in
their notes as common in Manitoba from the middle to the last of May (12
to 29). William Rowan, however, finds it rare in Alberta.
There is a heavy northward migration along the Pacific coast. In some
notes sent to me by D. E. Brown from Grays Harbor, Washington, he says:
This bird, next to the western sandpiper, was by far the most
abundant of all the shore birds. It was noted in immense flocks the
day of my arrival, May 3, and was very common when I left, May 24.
Mixed flocks of this species and western sandpipers must have
contained 6,000 or 7,000 birds.
Herbert W. Brandt in his manuscript notes says:
The red-backed sandpiper is one of the most abundant shore birds
inhabiting the Hooper Bay region, confining itself almost entirely
to the low-lying flats. The Eskimos first reported this hardy
species on May 10 and two days later we collected our first
specimen at Point Dall. They were common in loose flocks by May 15
and abundant by May 20. At that time they were often associated
with the Aleutian sandpiper, to which, in the field, they bear a
marked resemblance. Soon after the later date the flocks
disintegrated into mated couples and they then repaired to their
lowland breeding haunts.
_Courtship._--Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) gives an attractive account of the
courtship of this species, as follows:
Soon after they arrive in spring they are engaged in pairing, and
the males may be seen upon quivering wings flying after the female
and uttering a musical, trilling note, which falls upon the ear
like the mellow tinkle of large water drops falling rapidly into a
partly filled vessel. Imagine the sounds thus produced by the water
run together into a steady and rapid trill some 5 to 10 seconds in
length, and the note of this sandpiper is represented. It is not
loud but has a rich full tone, difficult to describe, but pleasant
to hear among the discordant notes of the various waterfowl whose
hoarse cries arise on all sides. As the lover's suit approaches its
end the handsome suitor becomes exalted, and in his moments of
excitement he rises 15 or 20 yards, and, hovering on tremulous
wings over the object of his passion, pours forth a perfect gush of
music, until he glides back to earth exhausted, but ready to repeat
the effort a few minutes later. The female coyly retreats before
the advances of the male, but after various mishaps each bird finds
its partner for the summer and they start off house hunting in all
the ardor of a rising honeymoon.
Mr. Brandt in his manuscript notes describes it a little differently,
thus:
The red-backed sandpiper, often called the American dunlin, arrives
in flocks, the individuals of which are apparently not all mated. A
female will jump up and be immediately pursued by two to five
males, and as they all twist about, in and out, twittering all the
time, the alternate flashing of their reddish backs and black lower
parts seems like the signals of the telegraphic code. The males
appear never to catch the females, but to try to keep as close to
them as possible. When they alight again in the flock whence they
started they at once resume feeding without further display. The
thrilling song of this dainty bird is delivered while hovering with
quivering wing beats in mid-air. It appears as if both male and
female carry on the vocal effort, which sounds something like the
cheery tinkling of ice in a glass, and ends with a real lover's
note _dear, dear, dear_. This is repeated again and again and is
one of the pleasant characteristic songs of the marshy grass-woven
flats, where the discords of waterfowl prevail. After the fastest
male has captured his elusive sweetheart the two retire to their
chosen place on the flats to take up their more serious duties.
Here the female lays her eggs, often in a situation that is moist,
and never very far from a small pond or slough.
_Nesting._--The same observer says of the nest:
The home of the red-backed sandpiper is almost always found on a
dry eminence in the widespread grassy tidelands, where, near some
pool under the damp matted vegetation of the previous year,
sufficient concealment is afforded. Here in a mere depression in
the ground, still frozen underneath, a fragile nest is hurriedly
made of dry grass stems and filled, rather than lined, with the
tiny crisp leaves of the berry-bearing plants, that are deposited
by the flood tides of autumn in this area. The range of
measurements of 25 nests is: Inside diameter, 3-1/2 to 4 inches;
inside depth 2 to 3 inches; total depth, 3 to 5 inches.
This sandpiper is among the early nesters, we having taken the
first completed set of eggs on May 29, while by June 1 we had
discovered 75. The middle of June found the downy young bursting
forth, dainty creatures clad in black and brown with markings
similar to those of the other sandpiper chicks.
Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1900) found this species breeding on the Arctic
coast of Alaska, about 20 miles northeast of Cape Prince of Wales, on
June 27 and 28; he writes:
The birds were found scattered out on the tundras whence they could
be flushed from their nests or from where they had been feeding.
One nest was a cup-shaped cavity slightly lined with grasses and
sunk into the top of a hummock of moss surrounded by marshy ground.
The two others found were similarly located except that they were
embedded in clumps of grass, and mostly hidden from view by the
surrounding blades. Each nest contained four eggs. One was fresh
but the other two were considerably incubated.
Prof. Wells W. Cooke (1912) made the statement that this species has two
breeding areas "separated by nearly 1,500 miles of Arctic coast, from
Point Barrow to the Boothia Peninsula," where "there seems to be no
certain record of the occurrence of the red-backed sandpiper." This is
far from true, for it is well known to breed there and eggs have been
taken at many places along the Arctic coast.
_Eggs._--Herbert W. Brandt (Mss.) describes his series of 120 eggs of
this sandpiper very well, as follows:
The four eggs of the red-backed sandpiper, which is their
complement, are very handsome and show more variation than the eggs
of most of the other shore birds breeding in the Hooper Bay region.
In shape they are subpyriform to ovate pyriform and rest amid the
leafy nest lining with the small ends together often so placed that
the sitting bird during incubation touches only the larger ends.
The shell is not as strong as many shore-bird eggs of the same size
but they are not fragile by any means and they have considerable
luster. As was true of many of the limicoline eggs found along that
Bering Sea coast, there were two general types of ground color--the
one, the greenish, that predominated by a ratio of about 15 to
1--and the other was the brownish type. The ground color ranges
from "pale glaucous green"--that is the most common type--to
"glaucous green," while the brownish-tinged eggs shade from "olive
buff" to "dark olive buff." The surface markings are conspicuous
and vary greatly, for on some types the spots are small and well
scattered over the eggs; on others they are large, irregular, and
bold; while on still other specimens they are confluent on the
larger end and form a blotch that completely decorates that part of
the egg.
These spots are irregular in shape, but are inclined to be
elongated with their axis twisting to the right, so that when a
series of eggs is viewed looking toward the larger end, the spots
produce a clockwise spiral. Some of these spots are more twisted
than others, but on a few eggs there are no spiral tendencies at
all. The surface spots are quite variable in color, dependent
largely on the thickness of the pigment deposited, for where the
latter is thin the true color is observable, but when the
decoration is liberal, the blot becomes opaque and the color is
lost. These spots range from "auburn" and "raw umber" to "chestnut
brown" and "blackish brown." The underlying spots are well hidden
by the boldness of the surface markings and inclined to be small
and regular and are often more or less numerous. Their shades are
delicate, ranging from "pallid gray" to "mouse gray." An occasional
egg exhibits scattering insignificant additional markings of deep
"blackish brown."
The measurements of 145 eggs average 36.3 by 25.3 millimeters; the eggs
showing the four extremes measure =40.1= by 25.9, 39.2 by =26.5=, =34=
by 25, and 34.5 by =23.5= millimeters.
_Young._--Both sexes incubate and are rather close sitters, as well as
devoted and bold in the defense of their young. The period of incubation
is probably the same as for the European dunlin, 22 days. John Murdoch
(1885) says:
Both parents share in the work of incubation, though we happened to
obtain more males than females with the eggs. The young are pretty
generally hatched by the first week in July, and both adults and
young keep pretty well out of sight till the 1st of August, when
they begin to show about the lagoons and occasionally about the
beach, many of the young birds still downy about the head. The
autumn flight of young birds appears about the middle of August,
associating with the young _A. maculata_ and _M. griseus
scolopaceus_, in good-sized flocks, particularly about the pools on
the high tundra below Cape Smythe. They continue plenty in these
localities, sometimes appearing along the beach, for about a week,
when the greater part of them depart, leaving only a few stragglers
that stay till the first few days of September.
_Plumages._--The downy young red-backed is much paler and more buffy
than that of the least sandpiper. The crown, back, wings, and thighs are
variegated with brownish black, "ochraceous tawny" and "hazel," except
at the base of the down on the back, there is no rich, deep brown; the
above parts are quite thickly sprinkled, especially on the back, with
minute, round spots, terminal tufts of pale buff; a distinct stripe of
these nearly encircles the posterior half of the crown. The black of the
crown extends nearly to the bill and there is a black loral stripe; the
rest of the head and a band across the lower throat are "warm buff." The
rest of the under parts are white. The nape is a grizzly mixture of dull
buff and dusky.
The juvenal plumage, as seen in Alaska in August, is strikingly handsome
and quite distinctive. The feathers of the crown are dusky, edged with
"ochraceous tawny"; the sides of the head and nape are "drab-gray,"
streaked with dusky; the feathers of the back are black, broadly edged
with three colors in different areas, "ochraceous tawny," "hazel," and
buffy white; the scapulars are black, edged with "light ochraceous
buff"; the wing coverts are gray, tipped with pale buff; the rump and
upper tail coverts are "hair brown" to "drab"; the breast is tinged with
grayish and pale buff and streaked with dusky; the throat and rest of
the under parts are white, conspicuously and more or less heavily
spotted with dusky on the sides of the belly. This beautiful plumage is
worn for only a short time and is molted before the birds leave their
northern breeding grounds. The postjuvenal molt begins in August and is
generally finished before October; it involves nearly all of the body
plumage, nearly all of the scapulars, and some of the tertials, but not
the rump, upper tail coverts, or flight feathers.
In first winter plumage young birds are much like adults, but the ashy
brown upper parts are usually somewhat paler, and they can always be
recognized by the juvenal wing coverts and a few retained scapulars and
tertials. A partial prenuptial molt, similar to that of the adult,
produces a first nuptial plumage, in which young birds can be
distinguished only by the retained juvenal wing coverts. In fresh
plumage the black belly patch is veiled with white tips, which soon wear
away and leave this area clear black.
The first postnuptial molt of young birds and the corresponding molt of
adults produce adult winter plumages. The molt is complete and begins in
July or even late in June; the wings are apparently molted first in
July, and are entirely renewed before the birds start to migrate; the
body molt begins in August and lasts through September; there are
usually traces of the old nuptial plumage left when the birds arrive
here on migration. The partial prenuptial molt of adults comes in April
and May and involves the body plumage, but not all the scapulars or rump
or wing coverts.
_Food._--Red-backed sandpipers obtain their food on the ocean beaches at
low tide, on sandy flats or on mud flats, often feeding in company with
sanderlings, or with other small shore birds. Some writers have referred
to them as nervous and active running about in a lively manner while
feeding, but I have usually found them rather sluggish and inactive at
such times, easily approached and unsuspicious. Their food consists of
small mollusks, sand fleas, and other small crustaceans, amphipods,
flies and other insects and their larvae, diving and other aquatic
beetles, marine worms, and occasionally a few seeds of aquatic plants.
They are apt to gather where fish cleanings and other offal are thrown
out, to feed on the flies and other insects that abound there. Dr.
Charles W. Townsend (1905) writes:
In feeding they frequently plunge the bill, slightly open to its
base in the soft sand or mud, appear to work it about and when
successful draw forth an amphipod or a worm. Several times on one
occasion I saw one draw a worm to the water close at hand as if to
wash it before swallowing it. On another occasion a couple of
dunlins were so tame that it was possible to approach within 5 feet
of them. They were diligently probing in the sandy mud, wading in
water up to their bellies. At this depth it was necessary for them
to immerse their heads entirely, and I could see them shut their
eyes as they went under water. Whether the eyes were afterwards
opened or not I am unable to say. When disturbed they flew but a
short way, and if they happened to alight in water too deep for
their legs, they swam readily, as do all shore birds. When
disturbed the dunlin utters a short _kuk_. Their call note is
distinctive, and resembles somewhat the word _purre_, by which name
the European species is called. The note is plaintive and sometimes
melodious, and recalls, without its harshness, the cry of the
common tern.
_Behavior._--The earlier writers refer to this as an active, restless
bird. Audubon (1840) says:
There seems to be a kind of impatience in this bird that prevents
it from remaining any length of time in the same place, and you may
see it scarcely alighted on a sand bar, fly off without any
apparent reason to another, where it settles, runs for a few
moments, and again starts off on wing.
Giraud (1844) writes:
It is a restless active bird and gleans its food with great
nimbleness, and seems to be fond of continually changing its
position. Soon after alighting they collect together and make a
short excursion over the water, again alighting a short distance
from where they had previously taken wing. During their aerial
excursions, when whirling about, they crowd so close together that
many are killed at a single shot. On one of these occasions Mr.
Brasher informs me that he killed 52 by discharging both barrels
into a flock. This number is greater than I ever before heard of;
but from 10 to 15 is not unusual.
Wilson (1832), writing when shore birds were abundant, says of this
flocking habit:
These birds, in conjunction with several others, sometimes collect
together in such flocks, as to seem, at a distance, a large cloud
of thick smoke, varying in form and appearance every instant, while
it performs its evolutions in air. As this cloud descends and
courses along the shores of the ocean, with great rapidity, in a
kind of waving, serpentine flight, alternately throwing its dark
and white plumage to the eye, it forms a very grand and interesting
appearance. At such times the gunners make prodigious slaughter
among them; while, as the showers of their companions fall, the
whole body often alight, or descend to the surface with them, till
the sportsman is completely satiated with destruction.
Suckley (1860) found them equally abundant in the Puget Sound region,
for he writes:
Early in the season, before they have been rendered wild by being
much shot at, I have observed that upon a volley being fired into a
flock the unharmed birds in terror sweep around in several circles,
and hovering "_bunch_," as the sportsmen say, over their wounded
companions, and sometimes realight with them. At the moment of
their hovering in a compact body over the wounded is the time
generally seized to fire the reserved barrels; two or three shots
will frequently bring down from 30 to 60 birds; and I have known
one instance where an officer of the Army bagged 96 birds from one
discharge of his fowling piece. After being fired into once or
twice the flocks, learning to avoid sympathizing with their dead
and wounded, become shy and wary.
Several observers have remarked on the remarkable tameness of the
red-backed sandpiper. William Brewster (1925) spent two hours
photographing five of these birds within 8 feet of his boat on an open
mud flat; they paid no attention to his movements, the click of the
camera, or the flapping of the focusing cloth; "during much of the time
they were apparently asleep;" he even had difficulty in frightening them
away until he splashed water on them. I have frequently walked up to
within a few feet of feeding birds and had some difficulty in inducing
them to fly more than a short distance.
Their eyesight is keen enough, however, as shown by an incident related
by W. E. Saunders (1896). A bird which had been feeding near him for
about an hour, stopped, looked steadily, as if afraid, and "shrank down
flat on the ground, where he lay perfectly still." After some time Mr.
Saunders discovered an eagle approaching, so far away that he could
hardly see him. After the eagle had passed the sandpiper resumed his
feeding.
_Voice._--The red-backed sandpiper is usually silent when on the ground.
John T. Nichols, in his notes, calls the "flushing note of a single bird
a fine _chit-l-it_. Its flight note is an emphatic near-whistled _chu_
or _chru_, resembling some of the calls of the pectoral and semipalmated
sandpipers, but quite diagnostic when one is sufficiently familiar with
it. This call may also be phonetically suggested by the syllable
_purre_, which is a colloquial name of the European dunlin, of which it
is a race."
Doctor Townsend (1905) says: "The note is plaintive and sometimes
melodious, and recalls, without its harshness, the cry of the common
tern." Mr. Murdoch (1885) and others have noticed that the rolling call,
heard on the breeding grounds in June, "reminds one of the notes of the
frogs in New England in spring." A bird which Mr. Brewster (1925)
flushed "uttered a peculiarly mellow _tweet-twel-l-l-ut_ just as it rose
on wing."
_Field marks._--In spring plumage the American dunlin deserves the name
red backed, for its back is even redder than that of its European
relative; at that season the black patch on the belly is very
conspicuous, even at a long distance, so that the species is easily
recognized. It is a short-legged, rather stocky bird, about the size of
the sanderling, and can be identified in the fall by its rather long and
somewhat curved bill and its dull, mouse-colored back. A narrow white
stripe in the wing can be seen in flight.
_Fall._--Of their departure from Alaska, Doctor Nelson (1887) writes:
The young are mostly on the wing toward the end of July, and the
birds begin to gather into flocks along the muddy edges of the
brackish pools and the banks of tide creeks. Very soon after this
they begin to lose their summer plumage, and the molt continues
until the last of September or first of October. During the first
of October they are very common in flocks and singly among the
lakes and streams; a little later and the borders of these
situations are edged with ice and most of the birds leave for the
south, but some of the hardier ones betake themselves to the
seashore, where they join with Coues's sandpiper and remain as late
as the 12th or 13th of the month.
The southward migration separates into two widely divergent main routes,
with only stragglers between. One route is southward along the Pacific
coast and one southeastward along the west coast of Hudson Bay, through
the eastern Great Lakes, and to the coast of New England and farther
south. E. A. Preble (1902) saw them on the west coast of Hudson Bay,
just commencing the migration, on July 19, and "present by thousands"
south of Cape Eskimo on August 3 to 13. It seems to be a rare bird in
the interior Provinces of Canada; my Manitoba correspondents have no
fall records, and Professor Rowan has only one for Alberta. Mr. Brewster
(1925) saw it regularly at Lake Umbagog, Maine, in October; and W. E.
Clyde Todd (1904) calls it common in Erie County, Pennsylvania; probably
these two points represent the north and south limits of the eastward
route. Mr. Todd (1904) quotes from Samuel E. Bacon's notes as follows: