Photo Study Of The Spotted Sandpiper

We went to the Heislerville WMA in Cumberland County, New Jersey last week. While there, a very cooperative Spotted Sandpiper posed for my camera. I thought it would be interesting to do a photo study of this Heislerville bird (which by the way was in breeding plumage)  and compare it to some of the other Spotted Sandpipers that I have photographed in Peace Valley Park, Bucks County, PA,  over the past few years. The Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularia) is the most widespread breeding sandpiper in North America. It breeds along the edges of nearly any water source throughout the northern half of the continent. It is at home around urban ponds as well as tundra pools.

This medium sized shorebird (7.5 inches) with long legs and neck, winters in the Caribbean and South America.The Spotted Sandpiper is characteristically seen bobbing its tail and nodding while it forages on the ground or in water, picking up food by sight. They may also catch insects in flight. In addition to insects, Spotted Sandpipers also eat crustaceans and other invertebrates. Breeding adults (April through August) are brown above, with a bold white wing stripe, and white below with bold brown/black spots on breast and belly. Fall birds (September through March) lack the brown/ black spots below and have a brownish smudge at the sides of their breasts. As you will see from the photos below, there is also a great variation in the brown coloring of this beautiful bird, from grayish shades to deep russet…pretty neat! (From Cornell BNA, Wikpedia and audubonguides.com)

     
   In Breeding Plumage At Barnegat Jetty, June 2009                                 In Non-Breeding Plumage At Brigantine September 2008

 
In Plumage Transition, Port Mahon Ditch, April, 2008

 Breeding Plumage At Heislerville, May 2010
 
In Breeding Plumage At Brigantine, May 2010

In Non-Breeding Plumage, Peace Valley Park, April 2009

In Breeding Plumage At Barnegat Jetty, May 2010

In Breeding Plumage, Peace Valley Park, June 2009

Spotted Sandpiper At Brigantine, August 19th, 2010

The thumbnails with green captions are the photos of the same breeding plumaged Spotted Sandpiper taken at the Heislerville WMA on May 30th, 2010. The thumbnails with black captions were photos taken at Peace Valley Park in Bucks County, PA, on the dates noted, of many different Spotted Sandpipers.

To see a larger image of any Spotted Sandpiper below please click on either the thumbnails or the captions...thanks!

 © Howard B. Eskin 2010                    Please email your comments to hbeskin@voicenet.com             Please click here to go back to Bird Webpage Index