edge--or rarer farther in--of a tuft of _Dryas_, the bird will form
a cup-shaped not very deep nest hollow, the bottom of which is
sparsely lined with withered leaves of _Salix arctica_ or other
plants growing in the neighbourhood. In size, and partly in shape
the sanderling's nest resembles that of _Tringa alpina_. The
striking likeness in color to the surroundings and the monotonous
character of the landscape makes it extremely difficult to find the
nest unless the bird itself shows the way to it. The number of eggs
in a clutch is always four. I found eleven nests with eggs and some
fifty hatches of downy young ones but none of these differed from
the normal number.
By excellent tactics the breeding female understands to keep secret the
hiding place of the nest. She will generally leave the nest so early and
secretly, that even the most experienced and attentive eye does not
perceive it. She rushes rapidly from the nest with her head pressed down
against her back executing some peculiar creeping movements quite mute,
and hidden between stones and plants; following natural hollows in the
ground she will first appear in a distance of at least 100 meters from
the nest. By means of short, snarling, and faint cries and now and then
by flying up, she will then try to turn one's attention to herself. She
will often settle for some moments on small stones, clods of earth, and
similar places, from which she again will rush away with her dorsal
feathers erected and her wings hanging down and always in a direction
opposite to that in which her nest is situated.
H. E. Dresser (1904) gives a translation of notes on this species made
by Dr. H. Walter in the Taimyr Peninsula, from which I quote as follows:
The nests, found late in June and early in July, contained four
eggs each in three cases and three eggs in one case. The nest was
placed, unlike that of the other waders, which affected the
grass-covered portions of the tundra, between bare clay lumps on
moss, and consisted of a shallow depression lined with a few dry
straws and a white tangle. In two cases the male, and in two the
female, was incubating. On the 16/29 July, when the young in down
were taken, the male showed anxiety, but the female was not seen.
During the breeding season some of these birds wandered about in
small flocks. This species remained until the end of August.
_Eggs._--The sanderling lays four eggs, sometimes only three. The eggs
are very rare in collections and few are available for study, but they
have been well described and fully illustrated. The eggs taken by Doctor
Walter are described by Mr. Dresser (1904) as follows:
Blunt pyriform, fine grained, with a faint gloss. Ground color pale
yellowish white, with a very pale greenish tinge and somewhat
marked with small yellowish brown and dark brown spots; a few
indistinct light violet gray markings; at the larger end a few
blackish dots and streaks.
In the colored illustrations of 10 eggs before me, the shapes vary from
ovate pyriform, the prevailing shape, to subpyriform. The prevailing
ground colors are greenish olive, "ecru-olive," "lime green," or "grape
green"; a few eggs are more buffy, "cream buff" to "deep olive buff."
The markings are small, and often inconspicuous, spots, scattered quite
evenly over the entire surface, but sometimes more thickly about the
larger end. These are in dull shades of brown, "buffy brown," "snuff
brown," or "sepia." They are not handsome or showy eggs. The
measurements of 41 eggs, furnished by Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain, average
35.7 by 24.7 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure
=38.2= by 24.7, 34.1 by =26.1=, =33.1= by 24.4 and 35.3 by =23.5=
millimeters.
_Young._--Authorities seem to differ as to whether both sexes incubate
or not. Both Feilden and Walter secured incubating males, but Manniche
(1910) says:
Till the laying is finished both birds will faithfully accompany
each other, but as soon as the brooding begins, the males will join
in smaller flocks and wander around on the table lands and at the
beaches of the fresh waters, often in company with _Tringa canutus_
and _Strepsilas interpres_. They usually left the country some days
before the middle of July. I secured several males for examination
but never found the least sign of a breeding spot.
He gives the period of incubation as 23 to 24 days and says of the
young:
The bursting of the egg shells will generally begin already some
three days before the emergence of the young. The mother bird will
immediately carefully carry the shells away from the nest in order
not to attract the attention of ravens and skuas. Between the
emergence of the young will elapse not more than a few hours; as
soon as the latest born young one feels sufficiently strong; that
is, when the down is dry, all the nestlings will leave the nest at
the same time. If the old female considers the nearest surroundings
of the nest to be unsafe or too difficult in food for the brood,
she will immediately lead the young away. Thus I have met with
newly hatched young ones, hardly one hour after their departure
from the nest in a distance of 500 to 600 meters from this. In the
cases concerned the disturbance by my frequent visits to the nests
during the breeding may have caused the early departure.
In the following 12 to 14 days the chicks are guarded by their
careful and extremely vigilant mother, who leads them over stony
plains, by overflows of melted snow and fresh-water beaches; they
are eagerly occupied in seeking food, which at this period
exclusively consists of small insects and larvae and pupae of
these. I have often observed that the chicks take shelter under
the wings of their mother from the cold nights and the heavy
showers. The chicks' power of resistance against cold and severe
weather is relatively small.
When the sanderling wants to protect her young ones against
hostile attacks she executes still more surprising systematic
tactics than she does when brooding. Already when at a distance of
some 200 to 300 meters from the young ones the old female would
rush toward me and by all kinds of flapping and creeping movements
in an opposite direction try to lead me astray; all the while she
would squeak like a young one, and now growl angrily, striving to
draw my attention toward herself only. Now and then she would rise
very high in the air in a direct rapid flight, to disappear behind
a rock on the opposite beach of a lake, etc. From quite another
direction she soon appeared again just before my feet.
If I finally retired still farther away from the young ones and for
a while kept myself hidden in the field, she would fly slowly,
sometimes quite low, over the earth to the spot where the young
still were lying motionless and mute, with their bodies pressed
flat against the earth and their neck and head stretched out. When
at last the female considers the danger to be over, she, flying or
running close to the chicks, produces a short chirping song, at the
tones of which all four young ones suddenly get up and begin to run
about. Only in this case the sanderling produces its highly
peculiar "sanderling song," which is very similar to the song of
_Sylvia curruca_. As long as the young kept lying quiet on the
ground in the before-mentioned attitude they were extremely
difficult to find, if I had not from my ambush by aid of my field
glass exactly marked down the spot where they last appeared. The
young ones do not seek any real cover, as in hollows in the ground,
under plants, behind stones, or similar natural hiding places. When
I had found a single young one, which while I kept it in my hands
began to chirp, it generally happened that the three other young,
which had till then kept quiet, suddenly rose and, with the wings
raised, uttered a quite fine mouse-like squeaking and hastily
rushed away, while the old female, as if paralyzed, lay down before
my feet, still squeaking exactly like the chicks.
Within 12 to 14 days the young ones are full grown and able to
fly. Strange to say, the brood of the sanderling seems to suffer
very little from hostile persecution, a fact which may be due to
the accomplished vigilance and prudent behaviour of the old female
and the young as well as the extremely suitably coloured clothing
of these. I wonder that these defenceless small beings can avoid
the Polar fox, which in this season more frequently than usual
visits the domain of the waders, and which, as well known, has an
excellent sense of smell.
_Plumages._--The nestling sanderling is thus described in Witherby's
Handbook (1920):
Forehead buff with a median black line from base of upper mandible
to crown; nape buff, down with dusky bases; rest of upper parts
variegated light buff, warm buff and black and more or less
spangled white; lores buff, two black lines across lores toward
eye; under parts white, cheeks, chin and throat suffused light
buff.
Mr. Manniche (1910) gives a colored plate showing four ages of downy
young sanderlings, which the above description fits. A nestling 7 days
old shows the remiges about one-third grown, while the body is still all
downy. Another nearly fully grown only 11 days old is still downy on the
head, neck, rump, and crissum, but is nearly fully feathered on the
mantle and wings, partly feathered on the under parts and the wings
extend beyond the stump of a tail; it must be close to the flight stage.
Such is the rapid development of these little Arctic birds that Mr.
Manniche (1910) says that they can fly when 14 days old.
In fresh juvenal plumage in the Arctic the feathers of the crown,
mantle, wing coverts, scapulars, and tertials are blackish brown,
broadly tipped, and all except those of the crown are also notched, with
buff; the sides of the head, neck, and breast are washed with buff;
before these birds reach us on migration these buff tints have mostly
faded out to creamy yellow or white; the feathers of the lower back,
rump, and upper tail coverts are ashy brown or grayish buff, each with a
dusky shaft streak and narrowly tipped with dusky; as these feathers are
not molted during the first winter they produce a peculiar rump pattern
by which young birds can be easily recognized. Young birds are in
juvenal plumage when they arrive here, with conspicuous black and white
backs. But the postjuvenal molt begins in September and is generally
completed before November; this molt involves the body plumage, except
the rump, and some of the wing coverts and tertials. The first winter
plumage is like that of the adult, plain gray above and white below,
except for the retained juvenal feathers as indicated above.
A partial, or perhaps nearly complete, prenuptial molt takes place in
young birds between March and May, involving the body plumage, sometimes
the tail and most of the scapulars and wing coverts. In this first
nuptial plumage young birds are much like adults, but can be recognized
by some retained wing coverts and tertials; the latter are shorter than
in adults, reaching not quite to the tip of the fourth primary in the
folded wing; in the adult wing the tertials reach nearly to the tip of
the third primary. At the next molt, the first postnuptial, the adult
winter plumage is assumed.
Adults have a complete postnuptial molt from July to October or later.
The body plumage is molted first, mainly in August and September, and
the wings later, mainly in October; specimens have been seen with
primaries in molt in February and March, but these are probably
abnormal. The prenuptial molt of adults is incomplete, involving nearly
all of the body plumage, but not all of the feathers of the back,
scapulars, tertials, or wing coverts. The fresh nuptial plumage in early
May is veiled with broad grayish white tips, which soon wear away. There
is great individual variation in the amount of red assumed and in the
molting date.
_Food._--The sanderling obtains most of its food by probing in the wet
sand of the seashore or by picking up what is washed up and left by the
receding waves. The former method is well described by Dr. Charles W.
Townsend (1920) as follows:
On the hard wet sand of the beaches one may see in places the
characteristic probings of the sanderling without a trace of their
foot marks, and these may be the cause of considerable mystery to
the uninitiated. While the semipalmated sandpiper runs about with
his head down dabbing irregularly here and there, the sanderling
vigorously probes the sand in a series of holes a quarter of an
inch to an inch apart in straight or curving lines a foot to 2 feet
long. Sometimes the probings are so near together that the line is
almost a continuous one like the furrow of a miniature plough. The
sand is thrown up in advance so that one can tell in which
direction the bird is going. A close inspection of the probings
often reveals their double character, showing that the bill was
introduced partly open. The probings are for the minute sand fleas
and other crustaceans in the sand, their principal food. I have
seen sanderlings running about nimbly on the beach, catching the
sand fleas which were hopping on the surface. I have also seen them
catching flies. I have a record of one I shot in 1884, whose
stomach was stuffed with small specimens of the common mussel,
_Mytilus edulis_.
The food consists mainly of sand fleas, shrimps, and other small
crustaceans, small mollusks, marine worms, flies, fly larvae, and other
insects, and sometimes a few seeds. Early in the season in the Arctic
regions when animal life of all kinds is scarce the sanderling is said
to subsist on the buds of saxifrage and other plants, as well as bits of
moss and algae.
_Behavior._--I have always loved to walk by the seashore alone with
Nature, and especially to tramp for miles over the hard sands of our
ocean beaches, where the heaving bosom of the restless sea sends its
flood of foaming breakers rolling up the steep slopes, cut into hills
and valleys by the action of the waves. From the crest of the beach
above or from the lonely sand dunes beyond comes the mellow whistle of
the plover, disturbed in his reveries; out over the blue waters a few
terns are flitting about or screaming in anxiety for their, now well
grown, young perched on the beach. Flocks of small shore birds hurry
past well out over the breakers, flashing light or dark, as they wheel
and turn; and high overhead the big gray gulls are circling. But right
at our feet is one of the characteristic features of the ocean beach, a
little flock of feeding sanderlings, confiding little fellows,
apparently unmindful of our presence. They run along ahead of us as fast
as we can walk, their little black legs fairly twinkling with rapid
motion. They are intent only on picking up their little bits of food and
most skillfully avoid the incoming wave by running up the beach just
ahead of it; occasionally a wave overtakes one when it flutters above
it; then as the wave recedes they run rapidly down with it, quickly
picking up what food they find. If we force them to fly, which they seem
reluctant to do, they circle out over the waves and settle on the beach
again a short distance ahead of us; by repeating this maneuver again and
again they lead us on and on up the beach, until, tired of being
disturbed, they finally make a wide circle out over the water around us
and alight on the beach far behind us. Their flight is swift, direct,
and generally low over the water, with less of the twistings and
turnings so common among shore birds. They usually flock by themselves,
but are often associated in small numbers with knots, small plovers, or
other beach-loving species. When satiated with food or tired of
strenuous activity, they retire to the crest of the beach, or the broad
sloping sand plains beyond it, to rest and doze or preen their plumage.
Here they stand or squat on the sand, often in immense flocks, all
facing the wind. Their colors match their surroundings so well that they
are not conspicuous and I have often been surprised to see them rise.
These large flocks are generally wary and not easily approached. But
small parties or single birds feeding along the surf line are very tame
and if we sit quietly on the beach, they will often run up quite close
to us. Like many other shore birds, they are fond of standing on one leg
or even hopping about on it for a long time, as if one leg were missing;
often a number of birds will be seen all doing this at the same time, as
if playing a sort of game; but if we watch them long enough, the other
leg will come down, for they are not cripples.
_Voice._--J. T. Nichols writes to me of the limited vocabulary of this
bird, as follows:
The note of the sanderling is a soft _ket, ket, ket_, uttered
singly or in series somewhat querulous in tone. It is at times used
in taking wing, also with variations in the conversational
twittering of a feeding flock. The sanderling is a rather silent
bird at all times and seems to have a comparatively limited
vocabulary.
_Field Marks._--The sanderling is well named "whitey" or "whiting," for
the large amount of white in its plumage, particularly in late summer,
fall, and winter, is one of its best field marks. In winter it appears
to be nearly all white while on the ground, against which the stiff
black legs, the rather heavy black bill and a dark area at the bend of
the wing stand out in sharp contrast. In flight the broad white stripe
in the wing, contrasted with black, is diagnostic; and the tail appears
white, or nearly so, with a dark center. Young birds in the fall can be
recognized by the mottled black and white back. Its foot prints in the
sand are recognizable, as well as the probings made by its bill.
_Fall._--Mr. Manniche (1910) observed the flocking of the young
sanderlings in Greenland, during August, prior to their departure about
the end of that month; he writes:
The flocks of sanderlings every day increase in size till they
culminate about August 20th. August 21st, 1906, I met on the shore
at Hvalrosodden with a flock numbering at least 300 sanderlings. I
walked there toward evening and, as the weather was unusualy fine,
the birds were very lively; the imposingly large flock of birds
executed evolutions in the air with incredible dexterity, now
scattered and then in a compact column, now very high in the air
and then close to the glassy level of the sea.
The first adults reach Massachusetts in July and are common or abundant
during the latter part of that month and through August. The earlier
arrivals are in worn spring plumage, but all stages of body molt are
seen during their stay with us. The young birds come along in the latter
part of August and are most abundant in September and October, after
the adults have gone. The earlier migrants are generally in small flocks
or little groups, but the late storms often bring along immense flocks,
which settle on the beaches in dense masses or sweep along between the
crests of the waves in great clouds.
The sanderling is a common migrant, sometimes abundant, throughout the
interior east of the Rocky Mountains, coming along at about the same
dates as on the Atlantic coast. Prof. William Rowan tells me of a bird
he shot in Alberta on November 8, 1902, that was feeding with a Baird
sandpiper "on the ice of a completely frozen lake." It is a common
migrant on the Pacific coast at about the same dates as elsewhere. D. E.
Brown (notes) records it at Grays Harbor, Washington, as late as
December 20, 1917.
_Game._--In the old days, before the shooting of small shore birds was
prohibited by law, sanderlings ranked as game birds among the beach
gunners. They were popular because they were so abundant and so tame
that they could be shot in large numbers, especially when flying in
large flocks. They are exceedingly fat in the fall and are delicious to
eat. A favorite method of shooting them was to dig a hole in the sand of
the beach, as near the water as practicable, in which the gunner could
hide and shoot into the flocks as they flew by. Dr. Charles W. Townsend
(1905) tells of a man who, in 1872, "saw two baskets, each holding half
a bushel and rounded full of these birds," shot by one man between
tides.
_Winter._--The winter home of the sanderling is extensive. A few birds
sometimes spend the winter as far north as Massachusetts. They are
common on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from North Carolina southward, as
well as on the Pacific coast up to central California at least. From
these northern points the winter range extends southward to central
Argentina and Chile, and even farther south. On the west coast of
Florida, where I spent the winter of 1924-25, sanderlings were common
all winter, associating with red-backed sandpipers and other small
waders on the extensive sand flats, or with knots and piping plovers on
the beaches. It was interesting to note how tame they were on the
protected bathing beaches and how wild they were elsewhere.
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--Cosmopolitan; breeding in Arctic or subarctic regions and
wintering mainly south of 40 degrees north latitude.
_Breeding range._--In North America the breeding range of the sanderling
extends north to Alaska (Point Barrow); northern Franklin (Price of
Wales Strait, Bay of Mercy, and probably Winter Harbor); northern Grant
Land (Floeberg Beach); Grinnell Land; northern Greenland (Thank God
Harbor, Stormkap, and Shannon Island); and perhaps Iceland (Mickla
Island). East to Iceland (Mickla Island); southern Greenland (Glacier
Valley and Godthaab); and eastern Franklin (Igloolik and Winter Island).
South to Franklin (Winter Island); Keewatin (Cape Fullerton); Mackenzie
(Bernard Harbor and Franklin Bay); and Alaska (probably Barter Island
and Point Barrow). West to Alaska (Point Barrow).
_Winter range._--In the Western Hemisphere the sanderling ranges in
winter north to: Washington (Dungeness Spit and Smith Island);
southeastern California (Salton Sea); Texas (Corpus Christi, Aransas
River, Refugio County, and Galveston); Louisiana (State Game Preserve);
western Florida (probably Pensacola and Bagdad); and rarely
Massachusetts (Plymouth County). East to rarely Massachusetts (Harvard,
Dennis, Muskeget Island, and Nantucket); rarely New York (Long Beach);
rarely New Jersey (Long Beach and Cape May); Virginia (Virginia Beach
and Cobb Island); North Carolina (Pea Island, Cape Hatteras, and Fort
Macon); Bermuda; South Carolina (Mount Pleasant and Frogmore); Georgia
(Savannah and Darien); Florida (Amelia Island, Seabreeze, Mosquito
Inlet, and Key West); Bahama Islands (Andros, Watling, and Fortune
Islands); Jamaica; Lesser Antilles (probably Barbados); Brazil (Cajetuba
Island and Iguape); and Argentina (Misiones, San Vicente, and Tombo
Point). South to Argentina (Tombo Point); and Chile (Coquimbo Bay). West
to Chile (Coquimbo Bay); Peru (mouth of the Tambo River and Chorillos);
Ecuador (Santa Elena); Galapagos Islands (Bindloe and Albemarle
Islands); probably Colombia (Carthagena). Vera Cruz (Barra de
Santecomapan); Lower California (San Jose del Cabo, Santa Margarita
Island, San Cristobal Bay, and Cedros Island); California (San Diego,
San Clemente Island, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Bolinas, and Point
Reyes); Oregon (Netarts Bay); and Washington (Grays Harbor and Dungeness
Spit).
_Spring migration._--Early dates of arrival in the spring are: Maine,
Augusta, April 11, and Saco, May 5; Franklin, Bay of Mercy, June 3,
Prince of Wales Strait, June 7, Walker Bay, June 9, Winter Island, June
10, and Igloolik, June 16; Greenland, coast at about 72 degrees
latitude, May 29, Cape Union, June 5; Kentucky, Bowling Green, May 1;
Missouri, Kansas City, April 30; Illinois, Chicago, May 10; Ohio,
Oberlin, April 6, Lakeside, April 17, and Columbus, May 10; Michigan,
Detroit, May 16; Ontario, London, May 13, and Toronto, May 20;
Minnesota, Goodhue, April 20; eastern Nebraska, Alliance, April 6; South
Dakota, Vermilion, April 29; North Dakota, Harrisburg, May 20; Manitoba,
Oak Lake, May 5; Saskatchewan, Orestwynd, May 23; Mackenzie, Fort
Simpson May 29; Colorado, Loveland, May 12, and near Denver, May 16;
Wyoming, Lake Como, May 5, and Laramie, May 15; Alberta, Edmonton,
April 29, and Fort Chipewyan, June 7; and Alaska, mouth of the Yukon
River, May 10.