Part 19

Nesting.--The breeding range of the spotted sandpiper, extending over a vast area of diversified land, ranging in altitude from sea-level to 14,000 feet, and including both arid and well-watered country, makes necessary in the bird a wide degree of adaptability in the choice of its nesting site. Few birds show a greater variation in this respect and among the places which the bird selects to lay its eggs there is but one point in common--the proximity of water.

The following quotations bring out the extreme variety of nesting sites: Mearns (1890) writing of the bird in Arizona says: “These birds were apparently breeding at a small lake, in a crater-like depression at the summit of a volcanic peak arising near the western base of the San Francisco cone, the lake being at an altitude of from 10,000 to 10,500 feet.” Shick (1890) reports the bird in New Jersey as breeding “in the higher parts of the island, generally on a sandy knoll in the high, rank sedge grass,” and Audubon (1840), speaks of the nests “in Labrador, where, in every instance, they were concealed under ledges of rocks extending for several feet over them, so I probably should not have observed them, had not the birds flown off as I was passing.” He also speaks, quoting Nuttall, of “their eggs laid in a strawberry bed.” Dwight (1893) records a nest “found in an odd situation at Tignish [Prince Edward Island]. It was under a decayed log in a boggy slope, and was carefully lined with bits of rotten wood.”

In the use of material to construct or line its nest the bird shows nearly as much variation as in the choice of the nesting site and it may be stated roughly that the more northerly the latitude of the breeding ground, the bulkier is the nest. Audubon (1840) says, speaking of the nests found in Labrador:

They were more bulky and more neatly constructed than any that I have examined southward of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. * * * These nests [those in Labrador] were made of dry moss, raised to the height of from 6 to 9 inches, and well finished within with slender grasses and feathers of the eider duck.

Brewster (1925) speaks of the bird as:

Especially given to breeding on small islands in Lake Umbagog [Maine], scarce one of which is left untenanted by them at the right season or resorted to by more than a single pair. Their eggs, almost invariably four in number, are usually laid during the last week of May, in saucer-shaped hollows scraped in surface soil, and thinly lined with dry grass. * * * If the island be treeless and ledgy, the nest is likely to be on or near the most elevated or central part, and more or less well concealed by grass or other lowly vegetation. But if all the ground, not subject to inundation, be densely wooded, the spot where the bird has hidden her treasures is seldom far back from the shore, and perhaps scarce above highwater mark, usually where driftwood has accumulated, or beneath the leafy branch of some outstanding alder or Cassandra bush. In such places as these, it is by no means easy to find the nest, even when the total area to be searched is only a few rods square. The task may well seem hopeless if undertaken in the open farming country about the southern end of the Lake, for, although spotted sandpipers breed here not uncommonly, they are so widely and sparsely distributed over hilly pastures and fields of considerable extent, that it is only by the merest chance that anybody ever stumbles on a nest. The only one that I have happened upon was well hidden in a tangle of withered grass and ferns, covering a steeply sloping bank by the roadside.

In incubation as well as in courtship the male has been shown to assume duties which are usually ascribed to the female. The following quotation illustrates this fact. Van Rossem (1925) says:

On July 11, in a boggy meadow near the water’s edge, we found a nest of four eggs which seemed nearly fresh. We often had occasion to pass this nest, but there was never more than one bird present. On July 25 the eggs had hatched and after a short search we found the downy young in the short grass. They were collected with the parent, which proved to be the male. The sides of his breast and belly were worn quite bare of feathers, showing that he had done most of if not all of the incubating. The succeeding days, we frequently passed the old nesting place, but never saw any other sandpiper in the vicinity. On July 26 Alden Miller and the writer were on the headwaters of the San Joaquin River, in Madera County [California], and while there found a nest on a grass-grown gravel bar in the river. It contained young which were just emerging from the shells. These were collected with the parent which, as in the first case, was a male. We were at this nest and in the immediate vicinity nearly an hour, but no other adult appeared.

Although as a rule the spotted sandpiper does not build near the nest of other birds of the same species, in exceptional cases many pairs nest in close proximity to each other.

L. McI. Terrill (1911), illustrating this gregarious habit, says:

A few years ago a large colony were nesting on Isle Ronde (a small island of a few acres, opposite the city of Montreal). Visiting this island on May 26, 1896, I located without difficulty 13 occupied nests. Again, on May 31, 1898, I examined upward of 25. On each occasion only a small portion of the island was examined, and I estimated that there were well over 100 pairs breeding.

Mousley (1916) points out that--

It may not be generally known that these birds if flushed whilst constructing their nest invariably desert it, at least this has been my experience on four occasions, when I have flushed both birds whilst in the act of scooping out or lining the hole. In one instance, however, they made a fresh nest within 45 feet of the old one.

Eggs.--[AUTHOR’S NOTE: The spotted sandpiper lays almost invariably 4 eggs, very rarely 5, and rarely only 3. These are ovate in shape, less pyriform than the eggs of most waders, and they have only a very slight gloss. The prevailing ground color is “cartridge buff,” with some variations to “pinkish buff,” or “pale olive buff.” They are irregularly spotted or blotched, usually both; sometimes they are finely and evenly sprinkled with small spots; and very rarely the markings are concentrated at the larger end. The markings are mostly in very dark browns, “seal brown,” “clove brown,” and “blackish brown,” and rarely as light as “Mars brown” or “russet.” The underlying markings are generally lacking or inconspicuous, but some handsome eggs are blotched with “lavender gray,” “pallid purple drab,” or “brownish drab.” The measurements of 88 eggs, in the United States National Museum, average 32 by 23 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =34= by =25=, =29= by 23, and 33 by =20= millimeters.]

Young.--The young spotted sandpiper furnishes an instance of an ancestral habit springing into action almost at the moment of hatching. When no larger than the egg from which they have just stepped they run over the sand teetering their tail in the manner of their parents. My notes mention a little bird, no more than a tiny ball of fluff, which stood on my hand waving up and down the feathery plumes of its infinitesimal tail.

Wilson (1832) says: “The young, as soon as they are freed from the shell, run about constantly wagging the tail,” and Nuttall (1834) speaks of “the habit of balancing or wagging the tail, in which even the young join as soon as they are fledged.”

Another example of the precociousness of the fledgling sandpiper is its ability to swim while still in the down. G. M. Sutton (1925) speaks of the habit thus:

Upon several occasions within the writer’s experience downy young of the spotted sandpiper, when closely pursued, have taken to the water, where they swam lightly although not very rapidly in making an escape.

Dr. C. W. Townsend (1920) cites a case in which a young bird, evidently in juvenal plumage, swam under water:

In Labrador I caught a nearly full-grown young still unable to fly and put it in a small river. It at once dove and swam under water for a distance of 3 or 4 feet, using for propulsion its wings and probably its feet, although I could not be sure of the latter point. It then rose to the surface and swam to the opposite side like a little duck and walked out on the sand, where the mother was anxiously calling.

Aretas A. Saunders also mentions in his notes a case of diving:

Young birds when away from the parent and threatened with danger often take to water and dive and swim under water, using the wings to help swim. At such times the down is covered with air bubbles, which helps keep them dry and gives them a silvery appearance. Once I pursued a young bird I wished to band, and it did this so many times that it became wet in spite of the air bubbles, and in fact was quite chilled through for a time.

More commonly the method of escaping danger adopted by the young sandpipers is to lie motionless on the beach, where a pebbly shore affords an ideal background for concealment. William Palmer (1909) brings out the success of this ruse thus:

While walking along a beach one summer a spotted sandpiper (Actitis macularia) and a single young were noticed some distance ahead. As I approached the place the old bird, with the startled manner characteristic of its kind at such a time, kept well ahead, but I could not find the other. Going back some distance, I waited and soon saw it again with its parent. I repeated my quest, and again failed to find the youngster. Going back once more and again seeing it rejoin the old bird, I slowly moved forward, keeping my eyes this time very intently on it, and soon picked it up from the sand, an unwilling captive.

A. A. Saunders gives in his notes a picture of the parental care of the young. The young birds are--

able to run and follow the parent when about half an hour from the egg (two instances). The parent leads them away and watches over them for a few days after hatching, after which they gradually stray away from her (?) care. At Flathead Lake [Montana] one bird hatched her young and led them down the beach, and I followed to see what would happen. When I got too near the mother (?) called Peet! peet! peet! in a loud, sharp call. The young immediately flattened themselves down among the pebbles so effectually I could only find one. I sat down on a log, and after waiting some 20 minutes the parent quieted down--flew to the opposite side of her young from me, turned and faced them, and began to call tootawee, tootawee, tootawee over and over. The young immediately responded and began a hurried run for the mother (?), calling baby peeps and tumbling over the pebbles in their eagerness. The parent half spread its wings as they arrived and they took shelter beneath, just as chickens do under a hen.

The period of incubation is 15 days.

Plumages.--[AUTHOR’S NOTE: The young spotted sandpiper in the natal down is quite uniformly grizzled or mottled on the upper parts, from crown to rump, with “buffy brown,” “wood brown,” grayish buff, and black. The forehead is grayish buff, and the entire under parts are white; a narrow black stripe extends from the bill through the eye to the nape; a black patch in the center of the crown extends as an indistinct median stripe down the nape and broadens to a black band along the back to the rump.