Peep, peep, peep. And then more peeps. That’s actually what many call these little birds, and others like them – ‘peeps’. Migrating sanderlings (their real name) show up beginning in late summer and by winter they are very common here. Most adults stay on the outer coast, but wintering birds in the Salish Sea are likely juveniles. My paintings show winter feathers, but in summer their top half darkens to a brightly mottled russet that really shows them off. I’d imagine it’s an obvious evolutionary adaption of pale winter camo for sandy beaches and brown summer feathers where they nest on the closest land to the North Pole, rocky shores with brown grasses. The camo birds that didn’t get the matching colors got picked off by the predators. The birds that blended survived to make another generation.

 

Sanderlings are the only sandpipers without a hind toe, so they swim quite well. They also hang out freely with other small sandpipers, the ‘peeps’, like semipalmated and western sandpipers, all of which make the same diagnostic calls as they forage shorelines, as if they’re talking about it. Ballet dancers at dodging surf, they move in and out, back and forth, always right at the edge looking to grab food morsels that get caught in that first break of a sandy wave. When at rest, look for them to stand on one foot, then the other, and when threatened they’ll actually hop away on that same foot before taking flight. They’re most interesting birds that make a winter walk around the marina fun – and a use for the boat binoculars you got for Christmas.

 

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