Purple Sandpiper
“Another bird that calls the high artic home is the Purple Sandpiper.”
Through the year
Columns that mention it, by the month they were published.
Year by year
Columns that mention it each year.
In his words
All 5 passages, oldest first.
Other first of season birds on this day include Rose-breasted Grosbeaks (male and female) and a single Purple Sandpiper (Pond Cove).
On the same morning a sizable flock of Purple Sandpiper caught my eye along Crescent Beach State Park before heading out to the exposed rocks (Seal Rocks) a ways offshore.
Later that same day on Trundy Point I spotted three Common Goldeneyes, the aforementioned Black Guillemot, two Harlequin Ducks, Common Eiders, a Common Loon, Black and Surf Scoters (aka skunk-headed coots) and nineteen Purple Sandpipers.
Another bird that calls the high artic home is the Purple Sandpiper.
These hearty Purple Sandpipers are mouse-gray above, mostly whitish below and they choose to winter farther north on the Atlantic coast than any other shorebird.