a single solitary sandpiper by Sarah Biesemier

A Single Solitary Sandpiper

Sarah with her solitary sandpiper

The past few weeks have been filled with exciting birds and also some exciting events. First up was the Birdies Fore the Marsh Fundraising Golf Tournament on September 8^th, which I must say was an absolute blast and so great to be a part of! Everyone continues to make me believe the stereotype that all Canadians are nice, as I so far have no evidence against it. The Hilliardton Marsh also made an appearance at the New Liskeard Fall Fair a couple weekends ago selling tickets for our Progressive Lottery Fundraiser “Catch the Ace”. If you are local and are looking for a great way to support the marsh while also entering to potentially win some money, you should consider purchasing “Catch the Ace” tickets. Catch the Ace runs each week from Wednesday to Wednesday and as of now is still going on. For more details about the progressive lottery and how to buy tickets, check out the marsh’s website or talk to our expert ticket salesman and marsh volunteer, Mohammad Fahmy, the next time you see him in town.

In other exhilarating marsh news, we banded our 100,000^th bird, a beautiful Western Palm Warbler! It was such an honor to witness the 100,000^th bird banded at the Hilliardton Marsh, and be a part of the center’s history and continued success. Also, our owl banding nights have begun! I have fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine to see a Northern Saw-Whet Owl, and I can’t wait to see more over the next few weeks as they migrate through the area. Hopefully soon we will get to see Boreal and Long-eared Owls as well!

boreal owl waiting to meet Sarah's fingers to date we have not  caught any this fall but hopefully soon

There have been so many exciting things happening at the marsh, we almost forgot to talk about one very exciting bird we recently banded. About two weeks ago on September 6^th, I was fortunate enough to band the marsh’s second ever Solitary Sandpiper! On our first net check that day, fellow volunteer Bronwyn Robinson and I were approaching a mist net we have set up near the edge of the woods. From a distance we saw a bird about the size of a thrush, but with an interesting black and white barred tail that looked similar to a woodpecker’s. As we got closer we could tell it was some sort of shorebird. After quickly extracting the bird, I met up with banding intern Nick Alioto at the other nets and asked him what he thought the bird could be. Nick responded with “All shorebirds look like rocks with legs.”

banded solitary sandpiper 2nd ever !!!

 While he appreciates all birds, raptors, particularly owls, are his favorites and, clearly, shorebirds are not. I thought it was probably some sort of sandpiper, and Nick did mention that it could be a solitary sandpiper (turns out he does know his birds quite well). I quickly glanced at the Sibley App on my phone, and the picture of a Solitary Sandpiper certainly looked like what I had extracted from the net. When we returned to the birdhouse, local legend and head bird bander, Bruce Murphy, looked at the bird and confirmed that we had indeed captured a Solitary Sandpiper in our nets.

The bird we caught on September 6^th was a hatch year bird, meaning that it is a young bird that hatched this past spring or summer. Before capturing our hatch year sandpiper, the marsh had only banded one Solitary Sandpiper before. On May 16^th, 2008, Bruce Murphy banded an older (after hatch year) Solitary Sandpiper. We are able to tell the age based on the plumage differences between adult and younger birds, but are unable to tell the sex of the birds because both male and female Solitary Sandpipers look alike. It was an absolute delight to place a shiny new band on the beautiful green legs of the second of this species to find its way into our nets.

could this banded solitary show up in south america ???

The Solitary Sandpiper (Tringa solitaria) is a medium-sized shorebird, almost the size of an American Robin, with a prominent white eye-ring, greenish legs, dark brown wings and back with small white spots, and a beautiful white and brown barred tail. The first thing I can tell you about Solitary Sandpipers is that the Latin word for this shorebirds genus name, Tringa, comes from the Ancient Greek word trungas, which was a thrush-sized wading bird mentioned by Aristotle. Other shorebirds that belong to the genus Tringa include Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs and Willets.

Solitary Sandpipers are special little guys who prefer to be on their own and don’t like to follow to the social norms of all other sandpipers; they are the loner non-conformists of the sandpiper world. Ok, so I’m exaggerating to make a point obviously, but, before one showed up in our nets, I had no idea how unique these sandpipers were. Out of the 85 species of sandpipers in the world, only the Solitary Sandpiper and Green Sandpiper lay eggs in trees instead of on the ground. However, they don’t make their own nests. Instead the Solitary Sandpiper lays its eggs in deserted tree nests built by other songbirds. They usually nest in spruce or other conifer trees, and particularly use the nests of American Robins, Rusty Blackbirds, Eastern Kingbirds, Gray Jays, and Cedar Waxwings. So they are loners, non-conformists, and squatters.

Solitary Sandpipers also differ from other sandpipers in their migration habits. While many sandpiper species migrate in groups, Solitary Sandpipers are usually seen alone during migration, hence the “solitary” part of their name. However, these sandpipers can sometimes be seen in small groups feeding together, and are often found near freshwater ponds and stream edges and more commonly in wooded regions. They breed in woodlands across Alaska and Canada, and migrate down to Central and South America for the winter.

so cute!!

When combining all the facts I’ve learned about Solitary Sandpipers, it starts to make sense as to why a single Solitary Sandpiper showed up in the marsh’s nets. After our Solitary Sandpiper’s parents bred somewhere in the area or further north and raised our bird in an abandoned nest of songbird, our little bird was preparing to make the journey south for the winter, on its own, alone, and solitary in the woodland areas of our freshwater marsh. That’s when we captured the beautiful bird, and gave it a shiny new identification number. If recaptured, this identification number will give us more insight to the life history of this bird. Soon, the Solitary Sandpiper will arrive in central or South America for the winter, and perhaps next spring it will journey back to Ontario and raise its own chicks in an abandoned nest of a songbird.

Bronwyn wrote haikus

So I will write a haiku

We all love haikus