Sanderlings

 

The winter shoreline so impressive for grand elements and vistas truly comes alive with its bird life. This week Sanderlings have appeared at the tide line, sometimes like snowflake specks on distant ledges and sometimes almost at your feet. Their diminutive animated whiteness is irresistible in an environment of enormity.

Sanderlings have an uncanny relationship with waves, which churn up miniscule edible invertebrates for them to find.

Hunting along the edge of the surf means relying on extraordinary reflexes.

Much of what they do seems to depend on split-second signals from other members of the flock.

They fly in tight formations with simultaneous twists and turns and no singular leadership.

Purple Sandpiper

Interestingly, within this nomadic flock were a few individuals of other species that adapted to its group dynamics, communication, and maneuvers.

Dunlin, airborne at left

Since a group of Sanderlings is called a 'grain' these other birds were going 'with the grain.'

Sanderlings congregate for breeding in the northernmost Arctic tundra. Then they disperse globally to shorelines along both hemispheres. Depending on where they winter this journey can be anywhere from 1,800 to 8,000 miles long.

Some Sanderlings maintain a year-round presence on Massachusetts beaches. At Halibut Point we're most likely to see them now when the world travelers are resting and refueling in their cosmopolitan migrations.