Peep city

I snapped off the photo below of all these Semipalmated Sandpipers resting and preening along the Stratford Point beach during high tide on a recent International Shorebird Survey. There have been several thousand at times here and at the Coastal Center at Milford Point, where visitors and birders have reported everything from Whimbrels to a Marbled Godwit and Western Sandpipers already this "fall". At Stratford Point I am now regularly recording species counts in the 40s without much effort, and 50+ if I have the time to dig a few birds out. Soon enough it will be 60 and 70 as more passerines join the mix, hopefully utilizing some of our new and growing vegetation throughout the next few months.

Shorebird diversity is on the rise, too, with birds like Ruddy Turnstone, Short-billed Dowitcher, and Black-bellied Plover being seen more often. As for these peeps, can you pick out which one is not like the others below? Because it is actually not a peep...

I promise you it is an obvious enough target. If you feel like picking out something much more difficult from the photo, by all means...


Scott Kruitbosch
Conservation Technician

Photo © Scott Kruitbosch and not to be reproduced without explicit permission