BIRDS OF NANTUCKET
SPOTTY
by Kenneth Turner Blackshaw
Imagine walking along the edge of a muddy pond on your toes, all the while with your head down and your rear end in the air teetering up and down. This is standard operating procedure for this week's bird, the Spotted Sandpiper. No one knows why they do it, but all of them do, even as tiny chicks barely dry from the eggshell.

Spotted Sandpiper

They sport the Latin name Actitis macularia, meaning a spotted bird that lives by the sea. This limits things a bit more than necessary since they are happy near any type of water, ponds, lakes, marshes and, yes, the sea. The genus Actitis only has two living members, our 'spotty' and the Common Sandpiper, Actitis hypoleucos that replaces it in Europe and Asia. It shares all our bird's characteristics except its spots.

Last week's bird was a hard one for beginning birders. This one is easy. It is quite observable and also not hard to identify, by appearance, behavior and call. Indeed, when walking around our salt marshes their distinctive whistled 'peet-weet' call swivels your head around and with a little experience Spotted Sandpiper will jump to your mind.

Having heard the call you will undoubtedly see the bird flying off, low with an arcing pattern. The flight is also diagnostic. Wings are held very stiff with only the tips vibrating rapidly to keep the bird aloft. There is a gliding pattern between bursts of flapping that allows you to see a thin white stripe on the barred brown wing.

Spotted sandpipers are not as large as an American Robin. By the way, birders use the robin as a benchmark. It is 10 inches long from beak to tail. One of the first questions asked about an unidentified bird should be, "Was it larger or smaller than a robin?" This will help you look up a bird in your bird book. Spotties are seven or eight inches long, brown above and pure white with dark polka dots below. They show a brown wash down the shoulder just in front of the wing.

That little brown area becomes important in the fall because alas, all the spots disappear. So if you 'spot' a Spotted Sandpiper in the autumn it will have no spots.

This is quite a successful species because it is so adaptable, content near any sort of water and found to nest from sea level to above 10,000 feet. Although not confirmed as nesting on our island a nest has been found on Tuckernuck. They nest across our country except in the far south and all the way up into Alaska.

We expect them to arrive here about mid- April and they are common until the end of May, then again from late June until mid- September. The message is that like so many shorebirds, the young are precocious, able to care for themselves almost as soon as they pop out of the shell. So fall migration begins almost before we think of it as summertime on Nantucket.

As I mentioned above, they have this teetering method of walking. It looks to us as if they have a string attached to their tail that is continually being pulled up and then let back down again, even when otherwise motionless. There is a wood warbler that has this characteristic as well, the Northern Waterthrush. It provides a comical show for the bird watchers.

Spotted Sandpipers don't collect in large flocks as other sandpipers do. This helped save them from being shot to near extinction for food as many of their kin were in the early 20th century. Hunters wanted hundreds, not two or three. The other factor was their adaptability to many diverse habitats, the only common denominator being proximity to water.

Their simple nest is built on the ground. Four chicks are typically raised and like many sandpipers the young quickly learn to swim to flee predators. However unlike many sandpipers they also can dive and use their wings and feet to propel themselves under water.

Most Spotted Sandpipers depart the United States for the winter, traveling down to Central and South America. Longevity is not a strong suit for them, the oldest on record being just over nine years. Two specimens reside in the Edith F. Andrews Bird Collection at the Maria Mitchell Association, one from May 2005, the other September 1975. One has spots. The other does not.

If you are teetering on the brink of becoming a bird watcher, perhaps seeing a Spotted

Sandpiper will bring you into the fold. I

George C. West creates illustrations for these articles. If you enjoy 'social' birding, join the Nantucket Bird Club at 8 a.m. Sundays in front of Nantucket High School for a two to three hour birding trip. Call 228-1693 for more information. To hear about rare birds, or to leave a bird report call the Massachusetts Audubon hot line at 1-781-259-8805. Ask Ken a question at: kenandcindy1@comcast.net.