The Least of These

 

The Birdcase, Peabody Essex Museum

Sandpipers grouped just above the boy's head

During a visit to the Peabody Essex Museum this week I was struck by how small the preserved birds appeared to be. The little shorebirds in particular gave a smaller impression than my sense of them on the coastal edges of Halibut Point. The tiniest of all, the Least Sandpiper, was said to weigh about the same as a penny.

Least Sandpiper

A penny? This sparrow-sized bantam spends its life navigating the natural forces of wind and water.

Least Sandpipers can be found regularly along our coast during the migration season, en route from tundra breeding grounds to wintering territories in South America. When they leave here they may fly nonstop more than 2,000 miles over the ocean.

It seems ironic that these creatures look bigger in the vast landscape than they do in the two-dimensional proximity of the glass case.

The sandpipers hunt energetically along the tide line for the miniscule morsels that fuel their journey.

Their plucky animation in the world of their being fulfills a presence and purpose that shrinks to a shadow when that life force is extinguished and brought indoors.