Sanderlings - Meet Sam & Sandy
 
About me  Names Calidris alba Sanderling Nicknames: Sam & Sandy Description We’re 6 1/2 inches long with medium length, thin, dark bill, We have wide wide stripes and a black line on our bottoms. We have beautiful white tummies. We’re “peeps” Our Photo Albums  Baby Photo  At the Beach in the Summer  Favorite Foods  Horseshoe Crab Eggs Small Crabs Crustaceans Sea Worms Learn More  www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Sanderling.html http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Sanderling.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0
 
It’s all about us! Hey, we’re Sam & Sandy and we are Sanderlings. Our most interesting feature is we are missing a fourth toe! This makes us great runners! You’ll see us running up and down at the water’s edge. We’re circumpolar Arctic breeders, and we’re long distance migrants, wintering south to South America. We’re highly gregarious in winter, sometimes forming large flocks on coastal mud flats or sandy beaches. We’re one of the most widespread wintering shorebirds in the world. We can be found on nearly all temperate and tropical sandy beaches throughout the world. Sam and and I peck and probe in sand for dinner. We run along the tide line. We like to run up the beach ahead of an incoming wave, then we turn around and run after a receding wave to pick up stranded invertebrates and probe in wet sand for tasty treats. In spring, we arrival on the High Arctic breeding grounds, where Sandy will lay 3 to 4 eggs in a ground scrape, that I lined with leaves. Sandy can lay two different nests of eggs, and then I or another male will incubate them with her help. We are the only shorebird in which an individual has been recorded on both coasts of North America during migration. Yes, one year we do California and the next year Stone Harbor. Stone Harbor’s Point is our favorite! Sam & Sandy We are arctic nesters!