Spotted Sandpiper

RBG. Hendrie Valley, Burlington ON. August 27 ^.2021. It was a funny start to birding today, we’d had a cataclysmic thunderstorm late yesterday and the morning dawned dripping and a bit battered. But it was quiet and I wondered whether all the birds had dissolved and washed away. They hadn’t of course and as the sun emerged everything reverted to normal and my transect walk was really quite rewarding. This is the start of the fall transect season, it marks the beginning of two months of fascinating birding, watching late summer give way to autumn and autumn to early winter. For a refresher on what I mean by transects, this post from last year should help, http://www.mybirdoftheday.ca/2020/09/29/birding-a-transect.

There were a few new faces to sort out, almost certainly birds on the move making their way south: couples of Least Flycatchers and American Redstarts and a nice little Spotted Sandpiper. I enjoyed watching a Green Heron stalking a small fish. It stood motionless on a duckweedy log for ages, then eased slowly, and deliberately into a strike pose. It paused, held for a minute and, in a flash, pounced to grab a small catfish; gave it one quick shake and swallowed it.

It was that Spotted Sandpiper that made my day. It was working the storm-swept muddy banks of the creek, lifting and placing its feet carefully, almost ballerina-like, as it picked for food.  Its body bobs and teeters as it moves, a characteristic it shares with Eurasia’s Common Sandpiper, a sister species. These two are closely related and so similar in behaviour and appearance that they almost certainly have a common ancestor. Our Spotted Sandpiper lives up to its name in spring and summer with a boldly spotted breast, but it fades or is moulted out to a very light grey or white by late summer, then it is virtually indistinguishable from its Common Sandpiper sister.

As I walked back to my car, this young male Ruby–throated Hummingbird allowed a couple of photos while it paused briefly between visits to the still wet flowers of Spotted Jewelweed.