Solitary sandpiper visiting in June

In the forest of northern Washington County, I came by a small pool. On its edge, I saw a dark, tall, graceful sandpiper. It had dark, slim, pointed wings and a tail with white outer feathers. It was a solitary sandpiper. It is a well-named species – they don’t flock in big numbers as many sandpiper species do.

The surprise was that it was in Maine in late June. June is nesting time for solitary sandpipers in the boreal or spruce forest of Canada. This species has not been found nesting in Maine before. It’s quite rare to see one in June in Maine.

The bird has unusual nesting habits for a sandpiper. Most sandpipers make their nests on the ground and most go up to the tundra – the treeless area in the north of Canada.

The solitary sandpiper doesn’t go that far to lay its eggs. It nests in the boreal forest, which is south of the tundra in Canada.

The bird usually lays its eggs in a nest built by another bird in the previous year. Usually it chooses the nest of a robin, whose nest is reinforced with mud. That nest is just the right size, and built to last. Sometimes it uses the nest of a grackle, whose nest is also built with mud.

Solitary sandpipers often add some grass or moss to the bowl of the year-old nest. They have not been found to pre-empt a nest with eggs or young of another species, but they have been found to pre-empt another species’ recently finished nest.

The solitary sandpiper often perches in the top of a spruce tree within its nesting area in Canada. A sandpiper looks odd in the top of a tree in the forest of the north; in Maine I’ve only seen them wading in the mud of a pond or beaver flowage. But their nest is on the branch of a spruce tree, so they have to know how to perch in a tree.

I can hope that it might be nesting in Maine; I’ll check it out again. It’s exciting when you can find a new record. But it’s not likely.

More likely this one lost its mate, its clutch of eggs, or its young and left the north to head for the coast of Florida or the West Indies for the winter. Better luck next year, graceful little solitary sandpiper.

For information on Fields Pond Audubon Center, call 989-2591.