northeast-flora-and-fauna

Last spring I saw a number of shorebirds , most of them migrating through New Jersey to get to more northerly breeding grounds [1]. On this particular day I saw a couple of Solitary Sandpipers in the same general vicinity at the same time. Although they get the "solitary" part of their name because they're frequently found alone, during migration there are probably only a limited number of good way stations available along their route. It's not shocking to see them and/or their larger Lesser Yellowlegs and Greater Yellowlegs cousins working the same area of a river even if they're not purposely flocking together. Solitary Sandpipers may prefer their alone time, but they're not psychopathic about it; these 2 were working different parts of Dukes Brook without any hostility that I could see. May 3, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 278556645, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) May 3, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 278556715, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserve...

During the spring quite a few birds migrate through New Jersey including but not limited to shorebirds like this Solitary Sandpiper . But it's not just New Jersey that's flyover country for these birds; other than a few that overwinter in southern Texas, the lower 48 states are all basically just used during migration. This bird was no doubt hoping to get a bite to eat as it journeyed north to its mostly Canadian breeding grounds. As their name implies, they're frequently seen alone. Though they mostly eat small invertebrates, I wouldn't be surprised if things like tadpoles and small fish get eaten if the opportunity presents itself. Without a strong beak or talons to tear stuff up, they probably only eat what they can swallow whole, and their options are presumably much more limited than those of a much larger bird like a Great Blue Heron . The sandpipers are a fairly large family of birds distributed across the world and consisting of 13 genera. Many of the species d...