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Spotted
Sandpiper
Actitis macularia
Contributed by Winsor Marrett Tyler
[Published in 1929:
Smithsonian Institution United States National Museum Bulletin 146
(Part 2): 78 - 97]
The spotted sandpiper is one of the successful species of
birds. The old writers, speaking of a time when the surface of the
country was very different from at present, are in accord as to
the abundance of this bird in North America. Wilson (1832) refers
to it as "very common"; Nuttall (1834) says it is
"one of the most familiar and common of all the New England
marsh birds"; and Audubon (1840) reports it "quite
abundant along the margins of the Mississippi, the Ohio, and their
tributaries," and "on the island of Jestico, in the Gulf
of St. Lawrence, about 20 pairs had nests and eggs. . .and the air
was filled with the pleasant sound of their voices."
At the present time we find the bird apparently little
diminished in numbers. In the numerous local lists published from
every part of the country the spotted sandpiper almost always has
a place. Notations such as "seen daily throughout the
summer" or "common along the streams" indicate the
wide distribution and abundance of the species. Indeed it is the
best known of our sandpipers, not only because of its extensive
breeding range, extending from coast to coast and northward into
Alaska and Labrador, but by reason of its individual and peculiar
habit of flight and its characteristic notes.
Almost every inhabitant of the United States, sometime during
the year, may meet this graceful little wader stepping delicately
along the margin of some sandy pond, the shore of the sea, or
skimming from perch to perch on the rocks bordering a mountain
stream.
Poised well above the ground on its slim greenish-yellow legs
it walks slowly and carefully along the shore, picking up a bit of
food now on this side, now on that. It goes forward with a
switching motion, head reached well forward and a little lowered.
Except when creeping up within reach of an insect or when its
attention is riveted on the snapping up of a bit of food, the tail
is almost continuously in motion up and down. At the least alarm
the motion is increased to a wider arc until the posterior half of
the bird's body is rapidly teetering. A little increase in alarm
and the bird is off on vibrating wings held stiffly and cupped
with the tips depressed, sailing along the shore away from danger.
As the bird takes wing it gives, almost without exception, its
whistled call, peet-weet-weet, a call so associated with
the bird that Nuttall long ago gave it the name peet-weet.
Spring.--The spotted sandpiper
moves northward earlier than the other sandpipers. It enters the
transitional zone in late April and early May, its time of arrival
coinciding very closely with the chewink, another ground feeder.
It returns to its breeding ground inconspicuously, never passing
by in the large flocks characteristic of many sandpipers, but
appears on the first day of its arrival running about on the shore
of its chosen bit of water, apparently settled for the season. In
this habit of not gathering into flocks it resembles its relative
the solitary sandpiper.
Wright and Harper (1913) speak of a few birds, left behind
after most of the species had spread over the country to the
north, tarrying in the Okefenokee Swamp till late in the spring:
The spotted sandpiper was a distinct surprise as a summer
resident of the swamp. Not only is this several hundred miles
south of its known breeding range, but one would not expect it to
find a suitable haunt in the Okefenokee. The lakes and rivers are
practically shoreless; they are simply open spaces in the
otherwise continuous cypress swamps. However, the logs and
driftwood near the edges of Billys Lake serve as teetering stands;
half a dozen were seen here on May 11, one on June 5, and still
another a few days later. The species probably does not breed in
this latitude.
Courtship.--The courtship of the
spotted sandpiper has not been observed very minutely. Some of the
few published reports on the subject show a discrepancy in
details, and one, giving an instance of display by a bird proved
by dissection to be a female, casts doubts on all records of
courtship based on sight identification and raises the question as
to the respective roles played by the sexes in the homelife of the
species.
Bradford Torrey (1885), assuming the bird to be a male, speaks
of
a spotted sandpiper, whose capers I amused myself with
watching, one day last June, on the shore of Saco Lake. As I
caught sight of him, he was straightening himself up, with a
pretty, self-conscious air, at the same time spreading his
white-edged tail, and calling, 'tweet, tweet, tweet.' Afterwards
he got upon a log, where, with head erect and wings thrown forward
and downward, he ran for a yard or two, calling as before. This
trick seemed especially to please him, and was several times
repeated. He ran rapidly, and with a comical prancing movement;
but nothing he did was half as laughable as the behavior of his
mate, who all this while dressed her feathers without once
deigning to look at her spouse's performance.
Whittle (1922) describes a similar action of a bird observed in
Montana on May 29:
One of the birds, judged to be a male, was seen standing on
a long, inclined timber, while another, presumed to be a female,
fed close by along the shore. The male first walked the length of
the timber and then flew to another one, where he depressed and
spread his tail, and, without teetering, stalked slowly along its
entire length, with head bent low.
Lewis O. Shelley (1925) reports from New Hampshire a courtship
display which differs from the two previous ones. Here again the
respective sexes are assumed:
A female sandpiper came running along the brook,
occasionally stopping to pick up an insect and teeter, then run on
again. Behind her were two males, the first strutting along,
looking much like a goose, craning his neck up, swelling out his
throat, drooping his wings, and spreading his tail; the second
kept well to the rear, and did no strutting.
Every time the female stopped for a second, or slowed, the
male would dart past her and stop, throw his head higher, and make
a 'fump, fump, fump' in his throat. If that failed to attract her
attention, he would again pass her and alternately spread wings
and tail. This performance went on all the afternoon, until almost
dusk.
This observation describes a courtship in which the behavior of
the aggressive bird corresponds closely, especially in the
movements of the head, with the action of the bird noted in the
next quotation--a bird proved by dissection to be a female.
A. J. Van Rossem (1925) gives the following extract from Dr.
Loye Miller's notebook:
Altitude, 9,000 feet; Mammoth Lakes, Inyo County, Calif.;
July 4, 1923: [spotted] sandpipers are just beginning to pair, and
several seen in courting flights. One especially active bird was
shot and proved to be a female. She came to an imitation of the
call--soared over a fallen log before alighting on it. She then
ruffed out the feathers and strutted like a turkey cock, with head
thrown back. The ova were the size of buckshot.
Nesting.--The breeding range of
the spotted sandpiper, extending over a vast area of diversified
land, ranging in altitude from sea-level to 14,000 feet, and
including both arid and well-watered country, makes necessary in
the bird a wide degree of adaptability in the choice of its
nesting site. Few birds show a greater variation in this respect,
and among the places which the bird selects to lay its eggs there
is but one point in common--the proximity of water.
The following quotations bring out the extreme variety of
nesting sites. Mearns (1890) writing of the bird in Arizona says:
"These birds were apparently breeding at a small lake, in a
crater-like depression at the summit of a volcanic peak arising
near the western base of the San Francisco cone, the lake being at
an altitude of from 10,000 to 10,500 feet." Shick (1890)
reports the bird in New Jersey as breeding "in the higher
parts of the island, generally on a sandy knoll in the high, rank
sedge grass," and Audubon (1840) speaks of the nests "in
Labrador, where, in every instance, they were concealed under
ledges of rocks extending for several feet over them, so I
probably should not have observed them, had not the birds flown
off as I was passing." He also speaks, quoting Nuttall, of
"their eggs laid in a strawberry bed." Dwight (1893)
records a nest "found in an odd situation at Tignish [Prince
Edward Island]. It was under a decayed log in a boggy slope, and
was carefully lined with bits of rotten wood."
In the use of material to construct or line its nest the bird
shows nearly as much variation as in the choice of the nesting
site and it may be stated roughly that the more northerly the
latitude of the breeding ground, the bulkier is the nest. Audubon
(1840) says, speaking of the nests found in Labrador:
They were more bulky and more neatly constructed than any
that I have examined southward of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. . . .
These nests [those in Labrador] were made of dry moss, raised to
the height of from 6 to 9 inches, and well finished within with
slender grasses and feathers of the eider duck.
Brewster (1925) speaks of the bird as
especially given to breeding on small islands in Lake
Umbagog [Maine], scarce one of which is left untenanted by them at
the right season or resorted to by more than a single pair. Their
eggs, almost invariably four in number, are usually laid during
the last week of May, in saucer-shaped hollows scraped in surface
soil, and thinly lined with dry grass. . . . If the island be
treeless and ledgy, the nest is likely to be on or near the most
elevated or central part, and more or less well concealed by grass
or other lowly vegetation. But if all the ground, not subject to
inundation, be densely wooded, the spot where the bird has hidden
her treasures is seldom far back from the shore, and perhaps
scarce above highwater mark, usually where driftwood has
accumulated, or beneath the leafy branch of some outstanding alder
or Cassandra bush. In such places as these, it is by no means easy
to find the nest, even when the total area to be searched is only
a few rods square. The task may well seem hopeless if undertaken
in the open farming country about the southern end of the Lake,
for, although spotted sandpipers breed here not uncommonly, they
are so widely and sparsely distributed over the hilly pastures and
fields of considerable extent, that it is only by the merest
chance that anybody ever stumbles on a nest. The only one that I
have happened upon was well hidden in a tangle of withered grass
and ferns, covering a steeply sloping bank by the roadside.
In incubation as well as in courtship the male has been shown
to assume duties which are usually ascribed to the female. The
following quotation illustrates this fact. Van Rossem (1925) says:
On July 11, in a boggy meadow near the water's edge, we
found a nest of four eggs which seemed nearly fresh. We often had
occasion to pass this nest, but there was never more than one bird
present. On July 25 the eggs had hatched and after a short search
we found the downy young in the short grass. They were collected
with the parent, which proved to be the male. The sides of his
breast and belly were worn quite bare of feathers, showing that he
had done most of, if not all of, the incubating. The succeeding
days, we frequently passed the old nesting place, but never saw
any other sandpiper in the vicinity. On July 26 Alden Miller and
the writer were on the headwaters of the San Joaquin River, in
Madera County [California], and while there found a nest on a
grass-grown gravel bar in the river. It contained young which were
just emerging from the shells. These were collected with the
parent which, as in the first case, was a male. We were at this
nest and in the immediate vicinity nearly an hour, but no other
adult appeared.
Although as a rule the spotted sandpiper does not build near
the nest of other birds of the same species, in exceptional cases
many pairs nest in close proximity to each other.
L. McI. Terrill (1911), illustrating this gregarious habit,
says:
A few years ago a large colony were nesting on Isle Ronde (a
small island of a few acres, opposite the city of Montreal).
Visiting this island on May 31, 1896, I located without difficulty
13 occupied nests. Again, on May 31, 1898, I examined upward of
25. On each occasion only a small portion of the island was
examined, and I estimated that there were well over 100 pairs
breeding.
Mousley (1916) points out that--
It may not be generally known that these birds if flushed
whilst constructing their nest invariably desert it, at least this
has been my experience on four occasions, when I have flushed both
birds whilst in the act of scooping out or lining the hole. In one
instance, however, they made a fresh nest within 45 feet of the
old one.
Eggs.--[AUTHOR'S NOTE: The spotted
sandpiper lays almost invariably 4 eggs, very rarely 5, and rarely
only 3. These are ovate in shape, less pyriform than the eggs of
most waders, and they have only a very slight gloss. The
prevailing ground color is "cartridge buff," with some
variations to "pinkish buff," or "pale olive
buff." They are irregularly spotted or blotched, usually
both; sometimes they are finely and evenly sprinkled with small
spots; and very rarely the markings are concentrated at the larger
end. The markings are mostly in very dark browns, "seal
brown," "clove brown," and "blackish
brown," and rarely as light as "Mars brown" or
"russet." The underlying markings are generally lacking
or inconspicuous, but some handsome eggs are blotched with
"lavender gray," "pallid purple drab," or
"brownish drab." The measurements of 88 eggs, in the
United States National Museum, average 32 by 23 millimeters; the
eggs showing the four extremes measure 34 by 25, 29
by 23, and 33 by 20 millimeters.]
Young.--The young spotted sandpiper
furnishes an instance of an ancestral habit springing into action
almost at the moment of hatching. When no larger than the egg from
which they have just stepped they run over the sand teetering
their tail in the manner of their parents. My notes mention a
little bird, no more than a tiny ball of fluff, which stood on my
hand waving up and down the feathery plumes of its infinitesimal
tail.
Wilson (1832) says: "The young, as soon as they are freed
from the shell, run about constantly wagging the tail," and
Nuttall (1834) speaks of "the habit of balancing or wagging
the tail, in which even the young join as soon as they are
fledged."
Another example of the precociousness of the fledgling
sandpiper is its ability to swim while still in the down. G. M.
Sutton (1925) speaks of the habit thus:
Upon several occasions within the writer's experience downy
young of the spotted sandpiper, when closely pursued, have taken
to the water, where they swam lightly although not very rapidly in
making an escape.
Dr. C. W. Townsend (1920) cites a case in which a young bird,
evidently in juvenal plumage, swam under water:
In Labrador I caught a nearly full-grown young still unable
to fly and put it in a small river. It at once dove and swam under
water for a distance of 3 or 4 feet, using for propulsion its
wings and probably its feet, although I could not be sure of the
latter point. It then rose to the surface and swam to the opposite
side like a little duck and walked out on the sand, where the
mother was anxiously calling.
Aretas A. Saunders also mentions in his notes a case for
diving:
Young birds when away from the parent and threatened with
danger often take to water and dive and swim under water, using
the wings to help swim. At such times the down is covered with air
bubbles, which helps keep them dry and gives them a silvery
appearance. Once I pursued a young bird I wished to band, and it
did this so many times that it became wet in spite of the air
bubbles, and in fact was quite chilled through for a time.
More commonly the method of escaping danger adopted by the
young sandpipers is to lie motionless on the beach, where a pebbly
shore affords an ideal background for concealment. William Palmer
(1909) brings out the success of this ruse thus:
While walking along a beach one summer a spotted sandpiper (Actitis
macularia) and a single young were noticed some distance
ahead. As I approached the place the old bird, with the startled
manner characteristic of its kind at such a time, kept well ahead,
but I could not find the other. Going back some distance, I waited
and soon saw it again with its parent. I repeated my quest, and
again failed to find the youngster. Going back once more and again
seeing it rejoin the old bird, I slowly moved forward, keeping my
eyes this time very intently on it, and soon picked it up from the
sand, an unwilling captive.
A. A. Saunders gives in his notes a picture of the parental
care of the young. The young birds are--
able to run and follow the parent when about half an hour
from the egg (two instances). The parent leads them away and
watches over them for a few days after hatching, after which they
gradually stray away from her (?) care. At Flathead Lake [Montana]
one bird hatched her young and led them down the beach, and I
followed to see what would happen. When I got too near the mother
(?) called 'Peet! peet! peet!' in a loud, sharp call. The young
immediately flattened themselves down among the pebbles so
effectually I could only find one. I sat down on a log, and after
waiting some 20 minutes the parent quieted down--flew to the
opposite side of her young from me, turned and faced them, and
began to call 'tootawee, tootawee, tootawee' over and over. The
young immediately responded and began a hurried run for the mother
(?), calling baby 'peeps' and tumbling over the pebbles in their
eagerness. The parent half spread its wings as they arrived and
they took shelter beneath, just as chickens do under a hen.
The period of incubation is 15 days.
Plumages.--[AUTHOR'S NOTE: The
young spotted sandpiper in the natal down is quite uniformly
grizzled or mottled on the upper parts, from crown to rump, with
"buffy brown," wood brown," grayish buff, and
black. The forehead is grayish buff, and the entire under parts
are white; a narrow black stripe extends from the bill through the
eye to the nape; a black patch in the center of the crown extends
as an indistinct median stripe down the nape and broadens to a
black band along the back to the rump.
The juvenal plumage comes in first on the mantle and wings,
then on the flanks, breast, and crown, and lastly on the neck,
rump, and tail. The upper parts are "light brownish
olive," more grayish on the sides of the neck and chest; the
scapulars and upper tail coverts have a subterminal sepia bar and
are tipped with pale buff or creamy white; the lesser and median
wing coverts are conspicuously barred with pale buff and sepia;
the chin, throat, and under parts are white.
During the fall, beginning late in August, or in September,
some of the body plumage, tail and some tertials and wing coverts
are molted, producing the first winter plumage. This postjuvenal
molt is very limited and very variable; I have seen birds in
juvenal plumage as late as December 3. The first winter plumage is
like the adult winter, except for the retained juvenal wing
coverts. It is worn until March or April. The wings are molted
during the winter at any time from October to April; and during
March and April the body plumage is molted, producing the first
nuptial plumage. This is like the adult nuptial, but there is more
gray on the sides of the neck and less spotting on the breast,
sometimes very little of the latter. But the plumage is
practically adult, except for a few retained juvenal wing coverts.
Adults have a complete postnuptial molt beginning with the body
plumage in August, or earlier, and ending with the molt of the
primaries at any time from October to April. In winter plumage the
upper parts are plain "dark grayish olive," shading off
lighter on the sides of the head and neck; the under parts are
white, faintly washed with grayish on the throat. The partial
prenuptial molt, involving only the body plumage comes in March
and April and produces the spotted breast of the nuptial plumage.]
Food.--At the seacoast the spotted
sandpiper searches for its food both on the beach and on the muddy
borders of creeks and inlets, wading into the water, however, less
frequently than most sandpipers; inland it feeds along the margins
of sandy ponds, sluggish meadow streams and rushing mountain
torrents; in farming country it strays into the meadows, fields,
and market gardens and finds in all these situations food which it
picks up from the low vegetation or from the ground.
Like some of the other sandpipers, however, and like several
other birds which have the agility to do so, it easily captures
flying insects even when they are on the wing. In order to come
within striking distance of an insect before it flies away, the
spotted sandpiper resorts to a ruse by which its approaching head
and beak are concealed or made inconspicuous. As the bird walks
over windrows of seaweed and such places where flies abound, it
stretches its body out with the bill pointing straight in front,
the whole bird lengthened into a line with the long axis parallel
to the ground. In this position the head, from the flies' point of
view, is masked by the body as a background and the bird is
enabled to come so near that it can snap up a fly, even after it
has taken wing, by a straight forward movement of the head. In
stalking a flying prey the spotted sandpiper creeps up to the fly,
moving slowly with cat-like steps, the tail motionless, and
apparently never adopts the well-known trick of the semipalmated
sandpiper, the running about with the hind part of the body tilted
far upward, advancing upon a fly under cover of this as a screen.
A complete list of the insects which form the spotted
sandpiper's diet, could one be compiled, would doubtless be a very
long one, comprising as it would both marine and land insects. The
wide range of the bird's choice of food is shown by the following
quotations which prove definitely that it is a very beneficial
species to the agriculturist.
E. H. Forbush (1925), speaking of the bird's habit of
frequenting cultivated fields, says:
They feed largely on locusts, grasshoppers and caterpillars,
such as cutworms, cabbage worms and army worms, also beetles,
grubs and other pests of cultivated lands.
H. K. Job (1911) writes:
The usual food of most species of this class [shorebirds] is
aquatic insect life of all sorts. This is in part the diet of the
spotted sandpiper. But as it is also a bird of field and pasture,
its range of insect food is very wide, including grasshoppers and
locusts. Probably almost anything in the insect line is grist for
its hopper, and it is a most useful bird.
Austin H. Clark (1905a) furnishes the following unusual
observation:
While on the island of St. Vincent, West Indies, last
October, I observed a number of our shore birds feeding on the
young of a small fish known as the "tri tri" (Sicydium
plumieri), which were at that time ascending the Richmond
River, near which I was staying, by thousands. The land about the
lower reaches of this river was laid completely bare by the recent
eruptions of the Soufriere, and in its present state proves very
attractive to all the species of shore birds which visit the
island during the migrations. Those observed or proved by
dissection to be eating the young tri tri (which were at that time
from half an inch to an inch and a quarter long) were. . .solitary
sandpipers (Helodromas solitarius), and spotted sandpipers
(Actitis macularia). All but the last two kept near the
mouth of the river, or on the flat lands along its lower reaches;
the solitary sandpiper followed the stream up into what were
formerly arrowroot fields, half or three-quarters of a mile from
the sea, and the spotted sand piper was found well into the
mountain forests.
W. H. Bergtold (1926) cites an instance of the bird's catching
another swift-moving fish. He says that the caretakers at the
Wigwam Fishing Club, Colorado, "reported the spotted
sandpiper as also catching trout fry."
The following quotation adds crickets to the list of insects;
H. W. Jewell (1909) writes:
While sitting on the banks of Sandy River one night I was
attracted to the actions of a spotted sandpiper. There were lots
of crickets on the shore of the river, and the sandpiper would
catch one in its bill, run up to the water, and immerse the insect
several times, then swallow it. This seemed a very interesting
performance to me, and I wondered if all living insects caught are
thus treated before they are eaten. The cricket is quite a large
insect, and as this bird ate 10 or 12 he did not go to bed hungry
that night.
Alexander Wetmore (1916), who examined the contents of nine
stomachs, says: "Though mole crickets (Scapteriscus
didactylos) were found in but two stomachs, they form 10.78
percent of the total food." Summarizing his findings, he
concludes, "From the foregoing the spotted sandpiper is a
beneficial species and should not be molested."
Behavior.--Nothing is more
characteristic of the spotted sandpiper than its flight. When it
first starts from the shore the wings seem to vibrate like a taut
wire; then, as the bird gains headway, they set and, depressed and
quivering, they carry the bird slowly onward, often swaying from
side to side, close to the surface of the water. As a rule, when
startled, the sandpiper takes a semicircular course and alights a
short distance farther up the beach, and if followed either takes
another flight onward or doubles back as a kingfisher would do
under similar circumstances. This scaling flight, somewhat after
the manner of a meadow lark, is seen most commonly during the
summer, but on infrequent occasions the sandpiper lets go his
wings and carries them back with a long, free sweep and speeds
through the air with the rapidity of a swallow. The transition
from one kind of flight to the other is remarkable to see; with
outstretched neck it drives along with regular wing beats, a long,
slender, unfamiliar-looking wader.
J. T. Nichols mentions in his notes this peculiar flight; he
says:
One might be familiar with the bird for years and believe it
[the scaling flight] invariable. Careful attention in late summer
and fall, however, will demonstrate that it is not. When, as
rarely happens, the spotted sandpiper rises to some height to make
a considerable aerial passage (especially over a stretch of marsh)
the flight becomes regular, like that of a miniature yellowlegs,
or swift and darting, as it sometimes is with a white-rumped
sandpiper for instance. It also, at times, flies low over the tops
of the marsh grass in this last named manner. To identify such
birds in the air is very difficult, and they will pass for some
one of the other sandpipers of rather small size if one does not
chance to appreciate the slenderer neck and somewhat different
shape, or the more uniform color of the upper parts.
The ability to swim and dive which is so noticeable in the
young of the spotted sandpiper is even more remarkably evident in
the behavior of the adult bird. Of the many instances recorded in
the literature, the following will illustrate this well developed
proclivity.
E. H. Forbush (1912) speaks thus of the action of a wounded
bird:
In September, 1876, I saw a wounded bird of this species,
when pursued, dive into deep water from the shore of the Charles
River and fly off under water, using its wings somewhat as a bird
would use them in the air. All its plumage was covered with
bubbles of air, which caught the light until the bird appeared as
if studded with sparkling gems as it sped away into the depths of
the dark river.
Late (1925) he adds a record of the bird actually running along
the bottom while entirely submerged. The spotted sandpiper--
can dive from the surface of the water or from full flight,
at need. Under water it progresses by using its wings which it
spreads quite widely, and in shallow water it can go to the bottom
and run a short distance with head held low and tail raised like
an ouzel or dipper.
G. M. Sutton (1925) describes the behavior of two birds which
he startled by a close sudden approach. In the first quotation he
shows that the spotted sandpiper readily dives while on the wing
and continues its flight under water and in the second quotation
he shows the bird's ability to rise directly into the air from
beneath the water, a feat impossible for many water birds.
When the bird first flushed, its wings were fully spread,
and it was headed for the open water of the lake. Upon seeing me
towering over it, however, it turned its course abruptly downward,
and without the slightest hesitation flew straight into the water.
With wings fully outspread and legs kicking it made its way rather
slowly along the sandy bottom, until it was about 8 feet out, in
water over 3 feet deep. I pursued the bird, thinking at the time,
strangely enough, that it was wounded. When I reached for it, it
tried to go farther but apparently could not. Bubbles of air came
from its mouth, and air bubbles were plainly seen clinging to the
plumage of its back. At the time it was captured its mouth, eyes,
and wings were all open, under water, and it remained at the
bottom seemingly without difficulty. As it lay in my hands above
water it seemed tired for a second or two, and then, without
warning, shook itself a little, leaped into the air, and with
loud, clear whistles, circled off a few inches above the water to
a distant point of land.
On a subsequent occasion, May 7, 1925, Mr. Sutton--
purposely came upon a spotted sandpiper suddenly and
witnessed it employ almost the identical tactics in making an
effective escape. At this time, however, the bird dove into
running water, swam with wings and feet rapidly moving for about
20 feet, and emerged down stream, still flying, and made off in
its characteristic way, only a few inches above the water.
L. L. Jewel (1915) watching a sandpiper in Panama under most
favorable circumstances, was able to make out clearly the position
of the feet while the bird was swimming under water. The beach
where Mr. Jewel made this observation was, as he describes it:
a wide coral reef, bare at low tide, and with occasional
openings or "wells" connected underneath with the sea.
Some of these are of considerable size and the water in all is as
clear as crystal to all depths--clear as only those who have seen
tropical "coral water" can imagine. . . .
I had however a perfect view of the bird as he
"flew" the 10 feet across the pool, through the
beautifully clear water which showed white pebbles distinctly on a
bottom perhaps 20 feet below. The bird crossed at a uniform depth
of 18 inches to 2 feet, which he held until he brought up against
the opposite wall. The head and neck were extended but not at all
stretched while the legs and feet trailed behind with flexed toes,
like a heron in flight. The wings seemed to be opened only perhaps
half their full extent--the primaries pointing well backward like
wings are trimmed as birds cut down from some height to alight.
The wing-beats were slow and even but not labored, and progress
was uniform and not at all hurried.
In addition to the anomalous behavior of the spotted sandpiper
in and under the water, the bird shows a further departure from
the regular habits of the other shore birds in its ability and
frequent tendency to perch on small supports which requires a
grasping power in the feet to hold the bird in place. My notes
supply an extreme instance of this habit, noting the action of an
adult bird (exercised, to be sure, over the safety of its young)
which alighted on a slender wire running between poles and stood
crouched a little and leaning forward, but keeping its balance by
securely gripping the wire.
The literature furnishes one other record of grasping a wire.
L. L. Snyder (1924) reports thus:
On June 25, 1923, at Orient Bay, Lake Nipigon, Ontario, the
writer observed a spotted sandpiper perching on a telegraph wire.
The fact that the species was perching was not surprising but the
size of the perch made the observation of interest. The bird was
not in an erect position, being squatted, which probably made the
feat less difficult. In this case the act was entirely voluntary
and not an instance of unusual conduct due to the pressure of an
emergency.
Other quotations, showing the bird acting in unsandpiper-like
behavior, follow. Mousley (1915) says:
On one occasion only have I seen a very excited parent bird
with young alight on a cat-tail head, and very out of place and
uncomfortable it seemed to be.
H. H. Cleaves (1908) says:
We were returning along a rather unused railroad when, in an
area to one side, which was flooded for the most part with a
number of inches of water, we noticed a spotted sandpiper flying
about in circles and acting peculiarly. We had all come to the
conclusion that her young were about somewhere, when she did a
most peculiar thing. The wet area in question was covered with
considerable underbrush, out of which grew rather tall,
second-growth timber. The sandpiper alighted on the tops of some
of these trees, on the small twigs, and remained balancing there
for some time, fully 25 or 30 feet from the ground. This
performance she repeated several times, making her appear for all
the world like a perching bird.
P. A. Taverner (1919) says:
Common all along the river [Red Deer River, Alberta] and
breeding everywhere. One bird on being flushed from her eggs flew
into adjoining bushes and climbed about them in a most unwaderlike
style while complaining at our intrusion.
J. T. Nichols points out in his notes that the foot of the
spotted sandpiper is adapted to its peculiar habits; that the bird
is able to grasp a small object because the front toes are nearer
together than in most waders and the hind toe is more developed.
He says:
The footmarks of the spotted sandpiper on moist sand or mud
are recognizable. Compared to those of related birds, the toes are
relatively little spreading, and the mark left by the hind toe
relatively large and conspicuous.
Under the title "Spotted Sandpiper Removing Its
Young," J. C. Merrill (1898) describes a very remarkable
performance, the only record of such behavior noted in the
literature.
A clearly observed case of the spotted sandpiper (Actitis
macularia) removing its young by flight recently came under my
notice, and I place it upon record, as such instances are rarely
seen, though they are, perhaps, of tolerably frequent occurrence,
as in the case of the woodcock.
Last summer, in the month of July, I frequently landed on a
little rocky islet near the head of the Saquenay River, shortly
after it issues from Lake St. John. Each time a spotted sandpiper
showed much concern for her young, which were often seen running
about and were a few days old. On one of these occasions, the
mother ran ahead of me to a point of rocks near which I stopped to
fish. A few moments later she flew, circling in the usual manner,
and as she passed in front of me and within a few feet, I saw one
of the young beneath her body, apparently clasped by her thighs;
its head was directed forward, somewhat outstretched, and was seen
with perfect distinctness. The parent's legs were apparently
hanging down as she flew, though I am not positive that what I saw
were not the legs of the young. The mother was in sight for about
60 yards, flying heavily and silently, and landed on a large
island, though I could not see her at the moment of alighting.
Voice.--The notes of the spotted
sandpiper are mainly modified and extended from its common alarm
note, the sharp, clear whistle, peet-weet, but as in the
case of many birds, degrees of emotion may be expressed by a
little change in pitch or inflection. When considerably alarmed
the bird continues to repeat the weet note, often given a
long series which trails off in diminuendo like the quacking of a
duck.
J. G. Nichols (1920) describes a series of notes:
'Hoy, hoy, weet, weet, weet, weet, weet, weet, weet' is a
prolonged call frequently heard in the early part of the nesting
season, in toto or in part, suggesting in that respect the
cuckoos. It doubtless has value as advertisement or location
notice and something the significance of a very generalized song.
A series of loud weets, heard also at other times of year, the
most far-reaching call of the species, doubtless serves as
location notice.
A. A. Saunders in his notes similarly describes the
"song." He says:
I believe the long call 'weet, weet, weet, weet, weet, weet,
weet, peet a weet, peet a weet, peet a weet, peet a weet' serves
as a song. I have seen it sung in flight, when the actions and
flight of the bird were similar to those of other flight singers.
Both of these observers describe the soft crooning note used by
the parent to bring together its young. Nichols says that "a
rolling note, kerrwee, kerrwee, kerrwee, now loud, now very
low and distant, has been heard from an adult with the evident
purpose of assembling her young; and Saunders speaks of a parent
bird which called to its young, tootawee, tootawee, tootawee,
tootawee over and over. The call is like the peet a weet
form, but lower pitched and softer."
A common note, heard during the summer on the breeding ground
when the birds are undisturbed, resembles closely the whistle of
the little frog, Hyla pickeringii. This is a far-reaching
whistled note, not given in a series like the weet, weet
call. It is a single note, apparently repeated over and over
again, not regularly, but always with an interval between
repetition.
It is clear that Nichols has this note in mind when he says,
"Pip! pip! pip! is a note heard between adult birds in
the breeding season which seems to be of polite address, or
possibly impolite, as it is almost identical in form with a note
of protest by old birds when nest or young are threatened."
Continuing, he describes two other notes, "the pit-wit-wit
frequently heard from adults as a note of departure may best be
considered a variation of this one [the pip wip of the
young] as also the peet weet weet or weet weet most
frequent a little later in the season as little companies of birds
start out over the water for longer or shorter distances.
"An old bird, surprised near her brood and fluttering off
playing wounded called cheerp cheerp a sort of scream as of
pain and fear."
Field marks.--The spotted
sandpiper is one of the prettiest, most delicate, and trim of the
shore birds; in place of the browns and greys of the streaked
upper parts of most waders there is a plain greenish sheen on the
back, and in autumn across the breast a soft tint like a fawn.
Through the glass the wings show a fine mottling, suggesting a
wren. The line of white at the posterior margin of the open wing
is a good diagnostic mark, and its habit of teetering makes
identification certain. The only bird which resembles the spotted
sandpiper at all closely is its larger relative the solitary
sandpiper, but the characteristic motion of this bird is a
ploverlike hitching movement or bob, as if hiccoughing, very
different from the spotted sandpiper's rapid swaying up and own of
the hinder part of the body.
Enemies.--The chief enemies of the
spotted sandpiper are the swift-moving hawks, whose pursuit it
sometimes successfully eludes by diving in the manner described
above. J. E. H. Kelso (1926) records an instance of this habit. He
says:
Skirting the lake sore in my sneak boat a spotted sandpiper
was repeatedly disturbed, flew along in front of the boat to
settle again and again on the shore. It then made off to cross a
small bay, when a pigeon hawk dashed out from some trees and made
a stoop or two at the dodging sandpiper, which would certainly
soon have been captured in the air if it had not suddenly alighted
on the water. This for a few seconds confused the hawk, which
circled just over its quarry and appeared to try to capture it
with its talons. The sandpiper dove, remaining under 3 or 4
seconds. The hawk on the disappearance of its intended victim at
once made off at a great pace.
W. H. Osgood (1909) describes an escape in this manner from an
attack by a northern shrike.
Wilson (1832) in his most charming manner tells this delightful
story:
My venerable friend, Mr. William Bartram, informs me that he
saw one of these birds defend her young for a considerable time
from the repeated attacks of a ground squirrel. The scene of
action was on the river shore. The parent had thrown herself, with
her two young behind her, between them and the land, and at every
attempt of the squirrel to seize them by a circuitous sweep raised
both her wings in an almost perpendicular position, assuming the
most formidable appearance she was capable of, and rushed forwards
on the squirrel, who, intimidated by her boldness and manner,
instantly retreated; but presently returning was met, as before,
in front and on flank by the daring and affectionate bird, who
with her wings and whole plumage bristling up seemed swelled to
twice her usual size. The young crowded together behind her,
apparently sensible of their perilous situation, moving backward
and forward as she advanced or retreated. This interesting scene
lasted for at least 10 minutes; the strength of the poor parent
began evidently to flag, and the attacks of the squirrel became
more daring and frequent, when my good friend, like one of those
celestial agents who in Homer's time so often decided the palm of
victory, stepped forward from his retreat, drove the assailant
back to his hole, and rescued the innocent from destruction.
A. A. Saunders sends the following suggestive note:
Once on Sherwoods Island, Westport, Conn., in September, I
saw a bird fly ahead of me with something large and black looking
dangling beneath it. The bird could hardly fly and tried to hide
in the beach grass as I approached. I caught it and found that a
large specimen of the common edible mussel (Mytilus edulis)
had closed its shell on the middle toe of the bird's left foot.
The toe was nearly severed just above the nail, and since I
couldn't pry the mussel open, I cut through the bit of skin left
and freed the bird.
Fall.--As is the case during its
northward migration, the spotted sandpiper leaves its breeding
ground and moves to its winter quarters inconspicuously, showing
little tendency to gather into flocks. Its voice is not
infrequently heard among the notes of the autumnal nocturnal
migrants--an indication that the bird in a measure makes use of
the safe, dark hours during its long journey southward.
Cooke (1897) says: "In the fall [in Colorado] it ranges
above the pines to 14,000 feet," illustrating the tendency to
wander about in autumn.
Game.--During the years, now past,
when the smaller shorebirds could legally be shot for food or
sport the spotted sandpiper suffered less than some of the other
Limicolae by reason of its more solitary habit. The gunners,
waiting for several of their tiny target to come within range of a
single shot, often disregarded a spotted sandpiper running alone
on the shore.
Winter.--Most of the spotted
sandpipers leave the United States to spend the winter on the
islands to the southward, and in South America, but the species is
nevertheless well represented in California during the winter, and
in the southern states on the Atlantic seaboard.
George Willett (1912) "found this species plentiful in
winter around Santa Barbara Islands and on rocky shores of the
mainland."
Dr. Alexander Wetmore (1916) speaking of the bird as a winter
visitant of Puerto Rico says:
It frequents the mangrove swamps, borders of lagoons,
margins of all the streams, and occasionally the sandy beaches.
During the winter season it follows inland along the small streams
and occurs throughout the island.
And (1927) reporting the birds' winter status in South America
says--
It is a regular migrant in South America as far as Bolivia
and southern Brazil, and on March 4, 1918, several were found by
Mogensen at Concepcion, Province of Tucuman, in northern
Argentina. On October 25, 1920, one was taken by the writer near
the mouth of the Rio Ajo on the eastern coast of the Province of
Buenos Aires, the southernmost point at which the species is
known.
Spotted Sandpiper*
Actitis macularia
Contributed by Winsor
Marrett Tyler
*Original Source: Bent,
Arthur Cleveland. 1929. Smithsonian Institution United States
National Museum Bulletin 146 (Part 2): 78 - 97. United States
Government Printing Office
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