A week of snowstorms, three storms in seven days to be exact, created a feeling of winter throughout the Lower New York Bay region. The morning after the last winter storm had moved away, I found myself along the edge of the Atlantic Ocean at Sandy Hook, near the entrance to NY Harbor, scanning the winter beach for hardy wildlife.
Only the well-covered and well-protected were out along the shore. It was a cold, windy mid-December day. Air temperatures were in the mid 30s with stiff north winds gusting up to 35 mph, making the wind-chill temperature feel like 20 degrees Fahrenheit. The waves were fairly large out in the ocean and there was serious chop in the bay too.
The beach was not empty though, there were hardy souls scattered about: bird-watchers, surfers, and people out surf fishing. They were all there to enjoy the beauty, no matter how bitter, of the winter beach.
Not much in the way of interesting wildlife, though, the choppy waters must have sent most of the migratory waterfowl to sheltered coves, creeks, and nooks around the estuary. There they would hunker down until the strong winds had settled down.
Yet what was this? Out of nowhere I was pleasantly surprised by the sighting of a large flock of Sanderlings landing along the water's edge. Sanderlings are a type of sandpiper. They are short, hardy, plump, pale-grey birds, just about the color of the winter beach in their non-breeding plumage, with black legs and a short straight black bill. Delightful birds that always seem to pop out of nowhere to keep you company during a beach walk, especially during the fall and winter. No matter the temperature, ice or snow, there always seems to be at least a few Sanderlings moving quickly about a beach.
There were about 50 Sanderlings here, all quite hungry. They didn't waste any time skittering near the water, despite the rough wave action, foraging in the sand with quick probing action of their bill, picking at the surface in the mud in search for something good to eat.
Watching Sanderlings forage is always an enjoyable activity to take time out to view. The small birds will run up and down the beach, with short fast motions, like little entertaining toys, quickly chasing the ebbing waves in search of food. Always scampering back and forth after the crashing waves.
These little sandpipers would feed today on amphipods and isopods. The birds were gobbling up the little invertebrates as soon as they found them following the retreat of pounding waves.
Sanderlings are actually opportunistic feeders. They will consume just about anything they can find in the wet sand and that will fit inside their small beaks, including sand crabs, aquatic insects, marine worms, and tiny clams, even occasionally junk-food, such as candy or potato chips, leftover by careless beachgoers.
I wondered where the Sanderlings had come from to be so hungry. The answer is really anywhere around the world. Sanderlings are familiar birds on coastal beaches all over the planet during the winter. The birds nest in the High Arctic of Canada, Greenland or Siberia during the summer, around 500 or 600 miles of the North Pole. Come fall and winter these little round sandpipers can be found on nearly all temperate and tropical sandy beaches throughout the world, truly a multinational bird!. Only two other shorebirds, the Ruddy Turnstone and the Whimbrel, rival the Sanderlings in worldwide distribution.
Most of the Sanderlings we see on coastal beaches around the New York metropolitan region have come from Canada, where they have spent the summer raising a family in the tundra of the High Arctic, on islands and peninsulas near ponds or streams. Sanderlings will leave their breeding areas sometime in late July through mid-August to begin their long-distance migration.
Sanderlings are highly migratory, pausing briefly at critical long-established stopovers to rest and feed, before continuing their long winged migration to overwinter anywhere from North to South America. Many studies suggest that Sanderlings will return year and year to the same wintering sites as their ancestors. Few people realize that such a strong connection between the High Arctic and the rest of the world takes place every winter via a small shorebird, nearly the color of sand.
Although common and cosmopolitan, the global population of Sanderlings has recently been noted to be in decline. Very sad news for such a pleasant beach bird. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, declines are most likely due to habitat loss of wide sandy beaches from poorly planned shoreline development where the birds overwinter and pollution from pesticides and oil spills due to their close association with the water's edge. In some developing countries where the birds also overwinter, Sanderlings are shot at for food. In addition, rapid climate change is creating intense storms to degrade prime nesting habitat in the High Arctic for Sanderlings.
Certainly, more needs to be done to protect the home and habitat of long-distance migrant birds, including Sanderlings. From the Arctic where rising temperatures are rapidly melting ice pack and changing the long-standing environment, to world-wide coastal areas where rapid commercial and industrial human development are imposing firm limits upon the biodiversity of this fragile region, we need to do more to protect and preserve Earth's coastlines for all species to enjoy.
Preservation begins at home. To help preserve the coast in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan region, please consider joining or volunteering for a local environmental organization. Some of my favorites for all the good work they do include the American Littoral Society, Clean Ocean Action, the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey, New York City Audubon, and the NY-NJ Baykeeper.
For more information, pictures and year-round sightings of wildlife in or near Sandy Hook Bay, Raritan Bay, and Lower New York Bay, please check out my blog entitled, Nature on the Edge of New York City at http://natureontheedgenyc.blogspot.com/
