found common at the time of the migration periods along the ocean
beaches and on the tide flats. It occurs in flocks of varying
sizes, some of which contain an exceedingly large number of birds.
At times if care is used one can approach a flock quite closely,
often within 15 or 20 feet, and it is of interest to watch the
actions of the individuals. They are active birds, being constantly
on the move as they feed, and while thus engaged keep up a
continual conversation, as it were, this being of the nature of a
soft, rolling whistle which is pleasant to hear. These sandpipers
seem to prefer to feed at or near the waters edge, particularly
where there is an ebb and flow, being very active in following up
the water as it recedes and equally so in avoiding its incoming,
but always at the very edge as it were. They secure their food by a
skimming like movement of the bill over the surface of the mud that
has just been covered by the water, and as the birds advance or
retreat in following the flow it is quite amusing to observe the
seeming pains taken to avoid coming into contact with it. And still
at times individuals may be seen in some of the very shallow spots.
It is a fine sight to see a flock of these sandpipers suddenly take
alarm as they are feeding; all quickly spring into the air as if
moved by the same impulse at exactly the same moment, and then form
a compact body that will execute a variety of evolutions in perfect
harmony. The flock will rise and fall and wheel and turn, and at
times may split into several smaller ones, these to again reunite,
and should one happen to stand where the light falls directly on
the birds the white of their underparts as they turn is very
striking. These actions may be repeated a number of times, and then
without warning the flock of birds will alight and quickly scatter
in search of food. Scenes like this are what give an enlightenment
to the waste places and fortunately, under the protection now
afforded the species, are likely to continue to be enacted in the
future. But large as the numbers of the western sandpiper still
appear to be, they are not comparable to those of fifteen or twenty
years ago, and the cause of this decrease in their numbers is the
same old story. It seems hardly possible that a bird so small could
have been regarded as game and its hunting come under the name of
sport, but such was the case and it brought about the logical
result. One may be thankful, however, that this no longer can be
done, and hope that the lapse of time may bring about somewhat of
an increase in the number of these birds.
_Voice._--John T. Nichols contributes the following on the calls of this
species:
The most common loud call of the western sandpiper has the _ee_
sound found in the _kreep_ of the least sandpiper, a plaintive
quality as in the voice of the sanderling, and suggests somewhat
the squawk of a young robin. It is variable and may be written
_chee-rp_, _cheep_, or _chir-eep_. It seems to be the flight note
of the species, corresponding to the _cherk_ of the semipalmated
sandpiper, and is also used by a bird on the ground calling to
others in the air which alight with it, as such flight notes
sometimes are. Its closest resemblance with a note of the
semipalmated is to the _serup_ sometimes heard from that bird when
flushing.
Some of the calls of the western are apparently indistinguishable
from those of the semipalmated sandpiper, but as studied on the
northwest coast of Florida, where it greatly outnumbered the other
form, more seemed different. Birds took wing with a _sirp_, or at
another time a _chir-ir-ip_, which heard also in a medley of
variations from a flock already on the wing, suggesting the notes
of the horned lark, may be more or less analogous with the short
flocking note of the semipalmated sandpiper.
_Field marks._--It is most difficult and often impossible to distinguish
between the western and the semipalmated sandpipers in life; and I have
experienced difficulty in distinguishing between them even in the hand.
The western has a longer bill, and I believe that the bill measurements
of corresponding sexes do not overlap, though they approach very
closely; but the longest-billed female semipalmated may have a longer
bill than the shortest-billed male western. In spring and summer
plumages the western shows much more rufous in the upper parts and is
more conspicuously and more heavily streaked on the breast, but in
winter plumage the two species are very much alike. Mr. Nichols has
given me a few characters by which this species can be recognized even
in winter; he calls it "a somewhat larger, rangier, paler, grayer bird"
than the semipalmated; it also has "better developed white stripes over
the eyes which meet more broadly on the forehead, the top of the head is
not so dark, its dark auricular area is not so prominent, the markings
on the top, and particularly on the sides, of the head and neck are
finer.
As to the bills, he says:
There is a subtle difference in their bills, however, which I have
frequently noticed in life and once or twice checked by taking
specimens. The bill of a long-billed semipalmated sandpiper is
quite straight and becomes slender toward the end; that of a
short-billed western is not so slender toward the end and with just
an appreciable downward bend before its tip. In long-billed
individuals of the western sandpiper the bill becomes slender
toward the end and frequently has a decided drop at the tip. Such
birds are unmistakably different to anyone thoroughly familiar with
the semipalmated sandpiper.
_Fall._--Like many other waders, these little sandpipers begin to move
off their breeding grounds at a very early date. As early as June 21,
1914, F. S. Hersey saw western sandpipers flocking at the mouth of the
Yukon River, Alaska. Some of the flocks contained from 40 to 60 birds.
The larger flocks were all of this species, but the smaller flocks often
contained one long-billed dowitcher.
Doctor Nelson (1887) says, of its fall wanderings:
Early in July the young are on the wing and begin to gather in
flocks toward the 1st of August. The last of these birds are seen
on the coast of Norton Sound and the Yukon mouth the 1st of
October. Although it is not recorded from the Seal and Aleutian
Islands, I have seen the bird at St. Lawrence Island, south of
Bering Straits, and at several points along the northeastern coast
of Siberia, and it frequents the Arctic coasts of Alaska in
addition to being found throughout the interior along streams where
suitable flats occur. Murdoch notes it as a fall visitor at Point
Barrow. It has been found in abundance on the southeast coast of
the Territory, where it occurs during the migrations.
On the coast of British Columbia and farther south it is an abundant
fall migrant, but it is rare or casual inland; the first arrivals
sometimes reach California before the middle of July. Migration records
for the great interior are almost entirely lacking and how it reaches
the Atlantic coast, where it is so abundant in fall and winter, is a
mystery.
Mr. Nichols wrote to me as follows:
The occurrence of this bird on the North Atlantic coast of the
United States is irregular. At times it is really numerous on Long
Island over periods of several years, and then it becomes rare
again. In the 1912 southward migration the western was carefully
looked for among the abundant semipalmated sandpiper but no
evidence of its presence was found. In 1913 a single bird with a
very white head and a peculiar note suggesting a young robin was, I
now feel confident, a western sandpiper, at the time it passed as
unidentified. The following year one of the white-headed
long-billed juvenal westerns was picked out in a flock of
semipalmated in August and collected. Later several others, all
well-marked birds were identified in flocks of the semipalmated. In
1916 and 1917 the species was still more numerous. On October 12,
1917, at Long Beach with R. C. Murphy it was estimated that about
one-half the _Ereunetes_ were this, one-half the common eastern
form. Specimens of each were obtained from gunners present. The
following year (1918) a flock on the beach in late spring (June 2)
were predominatingly western; the species returned again from the
north in early July (July 4). During this or the immediately
succeeding southward migrations the semipalmated fell off in
numbers, and furthermore, a great many birds thought to be western
were indeterminate. Mr. E. P. Bicknell met the same condition which
I found at Mastic further west at Long Beach. I remember a letter
wherein he spoke of the semipalmated being replaced by the western,
but I did not take just that view of it. For a year or two I have
no real idea how common either species was. I saw numerous birds
that seemed to be western, but mostly indeterminate, and took no
specimens. Later the standard semipalmated reestablished its
usually large numbers and this season (1925) probably for the first
time the western was again common among them, about as in 1916,
some of this latter form easily identifiable birds (in life).
_Winter._--Arthur T. Wayne (1910) says:
The western sandpiper is the most abundant of all the waders that
winter on this coast. It is not unusual to see thousands of these
birds any day during the winter months. It can almost be considered
a permanent resident, as it is only absent from May 20 until July
8. The adults arrive in worn breeding plumage and immediately begin
to moult the feathers of the head and throat. By the first week in
August they have acquired their autumn plumage.
Among the big flocks of small sandpipers that we saw all winter
frequenting the extensive mud flats in the vicinity of Tampa Bay,
Florida, I am satisfied that this species was well represented, if not
the predominating species. I confess that I can not identify in life
more than a very small percentage of these little "peep," and then only
when seen under most favorable circumstances. One dislikes to shoot any
number of the gentle little birds for identification. But what few we
shot proved to be western sandpipers, and I am inclined to think that
most of them were. Mr. Nichols writes to me:
In my limited experience _mauri_ is commoner than _pusillus_ on the
west coast of Florida. In Wakulla County in March and September,
1919, most all the _Ereunetes_ were western, only one or two among
them definitely identified as _pusillus_; and in April, 1917, two
or three western were identified with least sandpipers south of
Sanibel Light.
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--North America, Central America, the West Indies, and northern
South America.
_Breeding range._--So far as known, the western sandpiper breeds only in
Alaska. North to Cape Prince of Wales, Cape Blossom, Point Barrow, and
Camden Bay. East to Camden Bay and St. Michael. South to St. Michael,
Pastolik, and Hooper Bay. West to Hooper Bay, Nome, and Cape Prince of
Wales. It has been taken in summer in northeastern Siberia at two
points, East Cape on July 14, 1913, and Cape Serdze, on July 16, 1913.
_Winter range._--The Pacific, Gulf, and South Atlantic coasts of the
United States, the West Indies, Central America, and northern South
America. North to Washington (Dungeness Spit, and Smith Island); Texas
(Brownsville and Corpus Christi); Louisiana (Cameron and Vermilion
Parishes); Alabama (Dauphin Island); and rarely, North Carolina (Pea
Island). East to rarely, North Carolina (Pea Island and Fort Macon);
South Carolina (Charleston); Georgia (Blackbeard Island); Florida
(Amelia Island, and Fort Myers); Cuba (Guantanamo); and Trinidad. South
to Trinidad; Venezuela (Margarita Island); probably northern Colombia
(Sabanilla); probably Costa Rica (Barranca Puntarenas); Tehuantepec
(Tehuantepec City); and Lower California (La Paz). West to Lower
California (La Paz); California (San Diego County, Alameda, Oakland, and
Berkeley); and Washington (Point Chehalis; Seattle, and Dungeness Spit).
It also has been detected in winter on San Clemente Island, off the
coast of southern California.
_Spring migration._--The spring movement of birds that have wintered on
the South Atlantic coast is imperfectly known, there being available no
interior records that indicate the route by which they reach the
breeding grounds. The species has been detected at Long Beach, New York,
as early as April 25, and at Mastic, New York, on May 12, while late
spring departures from South Carolina have been noted at Charleston on
May 8, and from Mastic, New York, on June 2.
Early dates of arrival in the West are: Arizona, Fort Verde, April 11,
and San Pedro River, April 17; Colorado, Denver, May 2, and Loveland,
May 9; Nevada, Smoky Creek, May 6; Idaho, Meridian, May 6; British
Columbia, Sumas, April 20, and Chilliwack, April 26; and Alaska, Kuiu
Island, April 28, Craig, May 2, Patterson's Bay, May 7, Admiralty
Island, May 8, Fort Kenai, May 12, Hooper Bay, May 14, and Prince of
Wales Island, May 15.
Late dates of spring departure at western points are: Texas, Somerest,
May 5, San Angelo, May 6, Seadrift, May 8, and Tom Green and Concho
Counties, May 12; Kansas, Lawrence, May 26; South Dakota, Vermilion, May
24, and Forestburg, May 26; lower California, San Quentin Bay, May 10;
California, Fresno, May 12, Santa Barbara, May 16, Los Angeles, May 19,
Alameda, May 21, and Owens Lake, June 1; Oregon, Mercer, May 14;
Washington, Ilwaco, May 18, Neah Bay, May 24, Clallam Bay, May 25, and
Quillayute Needles, May 30.
_Fall migration._--Early dates of arrival in the fall are: British
Columbia, Courtenay, July 7, Nootka Sound, July 23, and Okanagan
Landing, July 28; Washington, Cape Flattery, July 2, Destruction Island,
July 3, and Granville, July 4; Oregon, Cow Creek Lake, July 4;
California, Santa Barbara, July 3, Fresno, July 5, and Tulare Lake, July
7; Lower California, San Quentin, August 24; Mexico, San Mateo, August
7; Idaho, Meridian, July 23, and Big Lost River, July 25; Wyoming, Fort
Bridger, July 13; Oklahoma, Old Greer County, July 19; Arizona, Tucson,
August 16, and San Bernardino Ranch, August 24; Texas, Mobeetie, July
27, Beaumont, August 5, Rockport, August 12, Hereford, August 18, and
Padre Island, August 21; Massachusetts, Monomoy Island, July 19, and
Nahant, August 4; New York, Mastic, July 4, and Freeport, July 16; South
Carolina, Charleston, July 8; and Florida, James Island, July 20.
Late dates of fall departure are: Alaska, Craig, September 24, and St.
Lazaria Island, September 29; British Columbia, Chilliwack, September
11, and Comox, September 26; Montana, Great Falls, September 4; New
Mexico, Albuquerque, October 5; Massachusetts, North Truro, September 2,
and Harvard, September 8; New York, Chateaugay, September 13,
Amityville, September 17, and Long Beach, October 12; New Jersey, Cape
May County, September 14; District of Columbia, Anacostia River,
September 25; and Virginia, Four-mile Run, September 11.
_Casual records._--Casual occurrences of the western sandpiper must, of
course, be based upon specimen evidence, as this species is easily
confused with the semipalmated sandpiper. For this reason several
records are considered doubtful, while in other regions it may be more
numerous than is now known. One was taken August 21, 1907, at Beaver,
Pennsylvania, while two were collected at Burlington, Iowa, on October
15, 1895, and one at Columbus, Ohio, on September 12, 1925.
_Egg dates._--Alaska: 159 records, May 23 to July 7: 80 records, May 29
to June 15.
CROCETHIA ALBA (Pallas)
SANDERLING
HABITS
Along the forearm of Cape Cod, from the elbow at Chatham to the wrist
near Provincetown, extend about 30 miles of nearly continuous ocean
beaches, to which we can add 10 more if we include that long, narrow
strip of beach and marsh called Monomoy. Facing the broad Atlantic and
exposed to all its furious storms, these beaches are swept clean and
pounded to a hard surface by the ceaseless waves. Even in calm weather
the restless ocean swells and surges up and down over these sloping
sands, and the winter storms may make or wash away a mile or so of beach
in a single season. Here on the ocean side of the beach, the "back side
of the beach," as it is called on the cape, is the favorite resort of
the little sanderlings in fair weather or in foul. They are well named
"beach birds," for here they are seldom found anywhere except on the
ocean beaches, and I believe that the same is true of the Pacific coast.
They are particularly active and happy during stormy weather, for then a
bountiful supply of food is cast up by the heavy surf. But at all times
the surf line attracts them, where they nimbly follow the receding waves
to snatch their morsels of food or skillfully dodge the advancing line
of foam as it rolls up the beach.
_Spring._--To the ends of the earth and back again extend the migrations
of the sanderling, the cosmopolitan globe trotter; few species, if any,
equal it in world-wide wanderings. Nesting in the Arctic regions of both
hemispheres, it migrates through all of the continents, and many of the
islands, to the southernmost limits of south America and Africa, and
even to Australia.
The spring migration starts in March, though the last migrants may hot
leave their winter resorts until late in April; they have been noted in
Chile from April 11 to 29, and even in May. The earliest migrants have
been known to reach New England and Ohio before the end of March. The
main flight passes through Massachusetts in May, a few birds lingering
into June. In the interior and on the Pacific coast the dates are about
the same. C. G. Harrold has taken it in Manitoba as early as April 29,
but William Rowan (1926) says that the main flight comes along during
the last week in May and the first few days of June, when it is
abundant.
A. L. V. Manniche (1910) thus describes the arrival of the sanderling on
its breeding grounds in northeastern Greenland:
The sanderling arrived at Stormkap singly or in couples
respectively June 2, 1907, and May 28, 1908. In company with the
other waders and large flocks of snow buntings, which arrived at
the same time, the sanderlings would in the first days after their
arrival resort to the few spots in the marshes and the surrounding
stony plains, which were free from snow; here they led a miserable
existence. Heavy snow storms and low temperature in connection with
want of open water made the support of life difficult to the birds.
The temperature increased quickly and caused in a few days the
places in which the birds could find food to extend very much. The
areas free from snow grew larger and larger, and the ice along the
beaches of small lakes and ponds with low water disappeared before
the scorching sun; at the same time small ponds of melting snow
were formed around in the field. Now the sanderlings would in
couples retire from the party of other birds, and lead a quiet and
tranquil life on the stony and dry plains. Now and then they would
pay a visit to ponds of melting snow and beaches of fresh water
lakes in order to bathe and seek food, and here they would join
the party of other small waders as for instance _Tringa alpina_
and _Aegialitis hiaticula_. According to my experience old birds
would never resort to salt water shore.
_Courtship._--The same observer tells us all we know about the courtship
of the sanderling, as follows:
The pairing began toward the middle of June. The peculiar pairing
flight of the male was to be seen and heard when the weather was
fine, and especially in the evening. Uttering a snarling or slight
neighing sound, he mounts to a height of some two meters from the
surface of the ground on strongly vibrating wings, to continue at
this height his flight for a short distance, most frequently in a
straight line, but sometimes in small circles.
When excited he frequently sits on the top of a solitary large
stone, his dorsal feathers blown out, his tail spread, and his
wings half let down, producing his curious subdued pairing tones.
He, however, soon returns to the female, which always keeps mute,
and then he tries by slow, affected, almost creeping movements to
induce her to pairing, until at last the act of pairing takes
place; when effected, both birds rush away in rapid flight, to
return soon after to the nesting place. I have also observed males
in pairing flight without being able to discover any female in the
neighborhood, and then, of course, without realizing the pairing
as completing act. The male is in the pairing time very
quarrelsome, and does not permit any strange bird to intrude on
the selected domain. He seems to be most envious against birds of
his own kin.
_Nesting._--The sanderling breeds only in the far north, so far north
that only very few Arctic explorers have found its nest. Strangely,
however, the first recorded nest was found in a region where it rarely
breeds and considerably south of its main breeding grounds. This was the
nest found by Roderick MacFarlane (1908) on the barren grounds of
northern Canada, of which he says:
On the 29th of June, 1864, we discovered a nest of this species in
the barren grounds east of Fort Anderson. It contained four eggs,
which we afterwards learnt were the first and only authenticated
examples at that time known to American naturalists. The nest was
composed of withered grasses and leaves placed in a small cavity or
depression in the ground. The contents of the eggs were quite
fresh, and they measured 1.44 inches by 0.95 to 0.99 in breadth,
and their ground color was a brownish olive marked with faint spots
and blotches of bister. These markings were very generally
diffused, but were a little more numerous about the larger ends.
They were of an oblong pyriform shape. The parent bird was snared
on the nest. It is a very rare bird in the Anderson River country,
and we failed to find another nest thereof.
The main breeding grounds of the sanderling are probably on the more
northern Arctic islands, but not enough nests have ever been found
anywhere to produce the hosts of birds which we see on migrations. Col.
H. W. Feilden (1877) gives the following description of his discovery of
the nest of this species:
I first observed this species in Grinnell Land on the 5th of June,
1876, flying in company with knots and turnstones; at this date it
was feeding, like the other waders, on the buds of _Saxifraga
oppositifolia_. This bird was by no means abundant along the coast
of Grinnell Land, but I observed several pairs in the aggregate,
and found a nest of this species containing two eggs in latitude
82° 33' N. on June 24, 1876. This nest, from which I killed the
male bird, was placed on a gravel ridge, at an altitude of several
hundred feet above the sea, and the eggs were deposited in a slight
depression in the center of a recumbent plant of Arctic willow, the
lining of the nest consisting of a few withered leaves and some of
the last year's catkins. August 8, 1876, along the shores of
Robeson Channel, I saw several parties of young ones, three to four
in number, following their parents, and led by the old birds,
searching most diligently for insects. At this date they were in a
very interesting stage of plumage, being just able to fly, but
retaining some of the down on their feathers.
The best account we have of the home life of the sanderling is given to
us by Mr. Manniche (1910), who found this species to be one of the
commonest breeding birds in northeastern Greenland. He writes:
In the extensive moor and marsh stretches west of Stormkap are many
smaller stony and clayey parts lying scattered like a sort of
islands. As these "stone isles" are most restricted in size, I
could without special difficulty realize the existence of the birds
here, and I found several nestling sanderlings on such places. The
problem was decidedly more difficult to me when the birds had their
homes on the extensive table-lands farther inland; here it will
depend on luck to meet with a couple of nestling sanderlings.
The laying began about June 20. The first nest found containing
eggs dates from June 28; these had, however, already been brooded
for some days. The clutch of eggs latest found dates from July 15;
the eggs in this nest were very much incubated. The sanderling
places its nest on the before mentioned dry clay-mixed stony
plains sparsely covered with _Salix arctica_, _Dryas octopetala_,
_Saxifraga oppositifolia_, and a few other scattered low growths.
I only found the nest on places of this type, never on moors or
plains entirely uncovered. The larger or smaller extent, the
higher or lower position over the level of the sea and the
distance from nearest shore of such locality is, according to my
experience, of no consequence. It only seems, as if the sanderling
prefers to nest on such places, which are situated not very far
from fresh water--a lake or a pond--to the shores of which the
young ones are often directed. Some nests found prove, however,
that the birds do not insist upon this.