A flock of sanderlings takes flight at Higgins Beach in Scarborough on Tuesday. Sanderlings are small, plump sandpipers with a bill about the same length as their heads, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The birds breed on the High Arctic tundra and migrate south in the fall. Sanderlings are a common sight on sandy Maine beaches during fall migration, the Maine Audubon Society reports. They are drawn to beaches to forage for marine invertebrates to eat. And they have an endearing nickname, according to the Cornell lab: “Peeps.” Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer Buy this Photo
On a gray beach day, these little creatures made me smile. Running back and forth like little wind-up toys, their skinny legs were barely visible as they played what looked like a game of who could get the closest to the water without getting their feet wet. It made me want to play along, but my heavy boots were a bit of a hindrance. One of the birds known as “peeps”, these playful sanderlings are welcome company on Maine’s beaches year-round.
Sanderlings look like many of the other shorebirds – a mix of brown, gray and white in slightly different combinations. Relatives include the red knot, curlew, dunlin, and least and semipalmated sandpipers. All of these are found in Maine, and many are found along the entire East coast, but sanderlings are the most widespread worldwide. Maybe it is their playful nature that makes them so adaptable to many different shore side environments. One of those environments is the high Arctic tundra where they go to breed in the summer. They nest on the wet, cold tundra and icy gravel – not the snuggliest of habitats, or where many creatures would choose to spend their summers.
But, for a small bird, they are incredibly hardy. They have a short, stocky build and short, but speedy legs that allow them to run in a remarkably smooth and efficient motion. Their incentive for dashing down to the water is to get down to their food source. They use their sharp bills to poke down into the sand for tiny sand-bound critters like tiny worms, bugs, and shellfish. These are the holes you see in the sand that quickly fill back up when the waves rush back in and wash over them, erasing the evidence of their hard work. This behavior gives them their name, which comes from the Old English sand-yrðling, meaning “sand ploughman”.
Sanderlings are not just speedy runners, though. They are also zippy fliers. When they’ve already plumbed the tasty treats from the sands of one area and are ready to move to the next spot, they speed along their sandy runways for a remarkably short distance, wings stretched out and ready to go. Then, they take off and speed low along the water, seeking out their next spot. If only our aircraft could alight so easily. Sanderlings can also easily skip away from predators this way as well. You might hear them shout squeaky “twee twee’s” as their alarm call to warn others in the flock.
We are lucky to have these joyful birds along the Maine coast, particularly on bleak winter days. But, the population in the United States has been dropping over the last several decades. Part of this is due to habitat loss from coastal development. Climate change is another factor impacting these small birds along with many others who spend part of their lives in what used to be more arctic locations. For this reason, they are currently listed as a species of Special Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The hope is that, with this designation and additional protections put into place, their population will begin to increase again. It would certainly be sad to lose these master toe-dippers.
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