Shorebirds that Nest Away from the Shore

Rarely have we had such a prolonged pluvial Spring and Summer. With so much rain it is hard to believe that the swallows were able to find enough food for their young. However, as the weather warmed, the insect life became abundant, and the birds probably benefited from the wetness. Ten of the nesting boxes I placed in the fields were occupied by tree swallows, and eight of them successfully fledged young.

Birds that nest on the ground perhaps were not so fortunate, especially if they build in low areas. Twice this summer we have happened upon baby spotted sandpipers searching for food in unlikely places. It was a treat to see the downy young with their fluffy feathers and miniature bodies on long legs. Were they there because the usual foraging areas were flooded?

Like ducks, sandpipers are precocial, the young able to move around and search for food themselves within a few minutes of hatching. You can observe them feeding on their own, but landbird species are altricial, remaining helpless in the nest to be fed by their parents until they are full sized. These spotted sandpipers lacked the breast spots of an adult, but boasted two large stripes on their head and back which the adults lack.

Sandpipers are so called shorebirds, but most members of this very large family do not nest near the ocean. They raise their young on the vast expanse of the Arctic tundra, which is rich with insect life during the short warm season there. In those 4-6 weeks of late June and July millions of shorebirds lay and incubate their eggs on the open ground. Only a few shorebird species nest farther south away from this Arctic larder.

There is a second large grouping of shorebirds called plovers, and they get their name from the Latin, 'pluvia,' which means rain. We still have the little used English word, 'pluvial,' meaning rainy, which I used in my opening sentence. It is not clear why they were given this rain name. Perhaps it is because during overland migration a rainstorm will cause the migrating flocks to come to ground in populated places before they reach the tidal flats and beaches.

One of the few shorebirds that nests in New England away from the coast, and in fact spends most of its life inland, is a plover called the killdeer. The odd name for this plover comes from their loud ringing two note call. They lay their eggs on the open ground after scraping out a slight depression among a masking pile of pebbles. They are fond of pastures, large lawns, and cultivated fields, where such a pebbly place may be found.

It is amazing that the eggs ever escape crushing by the grazing livestock or some machinery, but disaster happens only once in a while. If the nest site is threatened, the adults will go into a wild distraction display, feigning an injured wing and calling plaintively to lead the threat away. At least the machine operator will be made aware of the nest's presence, even if he is unable to avoid it.

The killdeer is among our earliest arrivals in March, and they are quick to lay eggs, so that before the field is even first plowed the fluffy young are scurrying around. They sometimes are found nesting in the sparsely grassed lots around industrial or commercial buildings. Then the young might be seen visiting the puddles of the nearby parking lot.

I saw them recently near the Holyoke Mall, standing still on the pavement like lost robins. The parents were nearby, alert and ready to call out if you approached too closely. The juvenile killdeer has a single black band across its throat that shows off the white belly and pale brown back. The adults have two such bands. The spotted sandpiper and the killdeer are two resourceful birds that do well even during a very pluvial nesting season.

A hundred years ago, the friendly killdeer and many of the Arctic nesting shorebirds were endangered due to market hunting, but almost all of them have come back strong with protection.