Coastal BC Birds: Spotted Sandpiper

Spotted Sandpiper

A Spotted Sandpiper visits our protective log boom.

I've always thought of Sandpipers as little birds skittering across a sandy beach, looking for tasty morsels as waves wash up on shore. I recently learned that Sandpipers go inland to frequent rivers, streams, lakes and ponds, especially during summer months.

Wayne was sitting on the couch looking out our sliding glass front door and saw a bird moving along our protective log boom.

I got my camera to get a shot to try and identify it. At first I couldn't find a bird that looked similar. That was because I was looking at pictures with breeding season plumage. When I looked at non-breeding, I found it, a Spotted Sandpiper.

Spotter Sandpipers are a medium sized shore bird that has spots on their breast during breeding season. In winter (looks like we're going to have an early one) they have a white breast with a grayish-brown back.

They tend to be solitary and walk quickly with a bobbing tail. Their range is from Alaska to South America. British Columbia is considered part of their non-breeding territory. Maybe this one is late to depart, or maybe our warm winters have encouraged him to remain.

They eat mostly small insects, other invertebrates and small fish. Our log booms offer a good foraging environment. They build nests along salt and freshwater shorelines in shaded hollows. Females are larger and take a lead role in courtship. Males have a big role in parenting. This is my first sighting in fifteen years of a Sandpiper up at the float cabin on Powell Lake. Hope he or she returns. -- Margy

References: The Cornell Lab of Ornithology All About Birds (online) and Atlas of the Breeding Birds of British Columbia (online).