Sandpiper migration

Spring migration is probably the most exciting time for birders.

During April and May, almost every trip into the woods or fields will yield the songs and colors of new arrivals. Fall migration, on the other hand, is not so exciting, with most of the summer song birds quietly disappearing at some point from late July into early September.

However, just as most of these other bird species are preparing to leave, and at a time when you figure that you've seen all the new species you are going to for the year, the fall migration of shorebirds, the plovers and sandpipers, begins.

Starting as a trickle in July and continuing as a torrent into late September, shorebirds leave their arctic and subarctic breeding grounds, heading for Central or South America. The flow of birds south begins with adult males in early July and peaks with the young of the year leaving into late September.

This fall migration is particularly spectacular on the coast with flocks numbering in the tens of thousands stopping over to rest and refuel on the mud flats of Washington's Grays Harbor. During their migration, these birds make a series of nonstop, long-distance flights of up to 2,500 miles to cover the entire 7,000-mile distance.

They may fly at altitudes up to 20,000 feet and at speeds up to 25 miles per hour. This is made even more spectacular when you realize that many of these birds weigh less than an ounce and have to put on 50 percent more weight in the form of fat for the trip.

The Inland Northwest, however, is not a significant player in the life cycle of most of the sandpipers. Generally, these long-billed, longlegged, graceful little birds simply pass us by on their migratory journeys.

We do have fairly large populations of Wilson's snipe (formerly named common snipe) that breed here, and a few even overwinter in our area. Lots of spotted sandpipers breed along the shores of our lakes. And there are probably populations of Wilson's phalaropes that breed in our area, too. If not, they at least are seen in good numbers fairly late into the spring.

For the most part, however, our only opportunity to see these little wonders of long-distance flight is in the late summer and early fall. In fact, now is the time to be out looking. There are 13 or more sandpiper species that, albeit in small numbers, are regularly seen in our area each fall.

The most conspicuous are the two yellowleg species, the greater (also the more common) and the lesser. Probably the most abundant, partially because they are often found in relatively large flocks, are the western and least sandpipers. These can be difficult to differentiate from the semipalmated and Baird's sandpipers, which are real prizes due to their relative scarcity.

There may also be good numbers of sanderlings, pectoral sandpipers, and dunlin, and, in some areas, large groups of dowitchers. These will be mostly long-billed, but don't give up looking for their sister species and you'll find an occasional short- billed dowitcher. And to me, at least, the best find of all would be a red-necked phalarope. These odd little sandpipers generally migrate at sea, but a few are seen inland each fall.

For the patient and the sharp-eyed, there is also the possibility of finding a real rarity, a species that is outside its normal range and in some cases may have never been seen here before. This year already there has been a ruddy turnstone, a strictly coastal sandpiper, in the Moses Lake area, and a little stint, a very rare Eurasian sandpiper, in Vancouver, B.C.

The farther west one goes, the better the chance of seeing these sandpipers. The many lakes and ponds in the area between Moses Lake and Othello, Wash., is prime for shorebirds. But Spokane and Kootenai counties have a representative share. What we lack are large areas of the mud flats that these birds require for their feeding stopovers.

There is a sandpiper, however, that prefers what we do have lots of: muddy, vegetation choked areas around marshes, ponds and creeks. This bird is the solitary sandpiper, "solitary" being its name as well as its habit.

Solitary sandpipers are not showy birds, although handsome with their white undersides and distinctive spotted backs (spotted sandpipers, the species, not spotted solitary sandpipers, have their spots on the chest in the summer and have no spots at all in the winter or in the juvenile bird - descriptive names can become quite confusing).

Solitary sandpipers also have striking white "spectacles" in the form of white eye rings, and greenish legs (even when they are clean) that match the green muck they feed in. They are similar to lesser yellowlegs (a species of sandpiper having long yellow legs, but which is smaller than the greater yellowlegs - see what I mean about confusing?), but have a neck and legs more in proportion to their body.

They are also smaller than the yellowlegs, their nearest relatives, at about two inches shorter in length than a robin, my universal measuring stick (lots of similar species can be differentiated by comparison with a robin: downy versus hairy woodpeckers, greater versus lesser yellowlegs, lesser yellowlegs versus solitary sandpiper, or even, solitary sandpiper versus killdeer, as there is often one of these close by - a killdeer and a robin are about the same size).

Solitary sandpipers are unique among the sandpipers in many ways. As their name implies, they are not a gregarious species as are most other shorebirds. Individuals are usually found either alone or loosely associated with several other birds. They migrate individually, usually at night, and not in the huge flocks of so many other species. Also, they avoid the tidal marshes preferred by most other shorebirds.

But most unique of all, they are the only North American sandpipers to nest in trees. All others nest on the ground. There is an interesting story about how the eggs of the solitary sandpiper were among the last to be found and described in an age when nest and egg collection was a huge priority for those studying birds. No one thought to look up in the trees.

As migrants, solitary sandpipers pass through our area heading north from mid-April to mid-May but are seldom seen. In July the adults are heading south already but are seen only rarely this far east. But from late July through September the juveniles are stopping off here, resting and feeding and making themselves available for our observation.

And they are also, no doubt, wondering how they'll ever find the Amazon Basin where their kind winter, having never been there and lacking parental guidance to show the way. How they do so remains a huge mystery, at least to us.

This sidebar appeared with the story:

BIRDING Q&A

First of all, thank you for writing your bird column. We all enjoy it.

My husband and I have had this question for four years now. Four years ago the cutest pair of birds took up residence in our teeny ornamental birdhouse(s) that I had tacked up on the outside back of the garage's south-facing wall.

I could not believe they could even fit into the hole. But they did and hatched three babies. The next year they came back and nested in the same back wall but in a bluebird house we had put up for swallows. They fixed it with lots of sticks so no other bird could get inside.

The next year they used the other bluebird house on the east- facing garage wall. Both bluebird houses are next to large bushes, which they utilized.

This year they were back in the first bluebird house. The male always sat a lot on a lattice fence we have on the deck (used as a privacy fence for the hot tub, which is broken, so we put a garbage lid on top which is used as the neighborhood bird bath). The song is very, very loud and quite different from the other birds. They also fly low and hop around on the ground.

This year I finally took some pictures so maybe you could identify them. In the top picture it looks like it has a short tail, but it isn't short. We think they are some sort of warbler, according to what we see in our bird book. This year they all left a few days after they fledged, but one got lost and didn't go with the family. It just left yesterday, after staying here for about a week or so.

So what do you think? I hope the pictures are identifiable.

Thanks so much for your time

Judy Williams

Windermere Kennels

Thank you for the e-mail, and especially for including the pictures. It's often tough trying to make an identification from a description alone.

Your nestbox inhabitants are house wrens. Along with violet-green swallows and bluebirds they are one of the more common birds to use the boxes, especially in yards.

Thanks again for the pictures.

Stephen Lindsay

We had a pair of common warblers nest on a speaker attached to the house. They raised two chicks, but when the chicks left the nest, we never saw any of the birds again. Is it normal for them to completely leave the area where they nested? We have food, water and cover readily available. Also, will they return to nest at the same spot next year?

Thanks.

Denise

Thank you for the e-mail. It's nice to hear from readers.

The birds nesting on your speaker are probably not actual warblers. In our area most warblers either nest in the forest or at least away from habitations. Birds most commonly nesting around buildings would be swallows (violet-green, tree, barn, cliff), house wrens, chickadees, Western bluebirds (out in the country), and, of course, house sparrows and European starlings. Take a look at these in a field guide to see which seems closest to your bird.

Birds often do leave the area of the nest as soon as the young fledge (leave the nest). This may be due in part to a desire to get away from the more obvious and vulnerable nest. It may also just reflect the need to get the young exposed to a wide array of habitats and food types prior to migration.

Thanks for the good question.

Stephen Lindsay

Thanks for great article on yellow-headed blackbirds. We were lucky enough to have one visits us. We took movies of him. He came back two years in a row and sat on our garage roof and made all sorts of racket. Wish he would come back - so beautiful he looked a lot bigger than the one in your article.

Thanks again.

Meyer family

Thank you for the note. I very much like to hear other people's bird stories. Birds are such neat creatures to watch. I never tire of them! Thanks again.

Stephen Lindsay

Are there birds at your feeder you can't identify? Do you have questions about a bird you saw soaring the skies of Kootenai County? "Birding in Kootenai County" is a monthly feature of Handle Extra. Stephen L. Lindsay is an avid Kootenai County birder and encourages readers to e-mail him with birding questions. When possible, he will respond in future columns. His email address is: [email protected].

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