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Least Sandpiper

Status Common transient, rare and local in summer. Breeds. It is a rather uncommon spring migrant, generally appearing in May (earliest 25 April, except for one abnormally early bird on Sable Island on 11 April 1972) and gone by month's end (latest apparent migrants 1 June). It nests regularly on Sable Island and has nested on Cape Sable Island, as well as in Halifax County and perhaps elsewhere. Migrants first appear in early July (average 6 July, earliest 1 July), after which the species becomes abundant until late September. Stragglers are frequent in October, rare in November (average 23 October, latest 6 December). A very late bird was found by Russel Crosby on the Christmas Bird Count at Port l'Hebert, Shelburne County, on 23 December 1976.

Description Length: 13-16 cm. Adults in spring: Upperparts brown, the feathers with blackish brown centres and gray, white or buff margins; white eyebrow line; wing coverts grayish brown; flight feathers blackish gray; underparts mostly white, with throat and breast suffused with brown and lightly streaked with gray; bill black; legs and feet greenish gray; toes showing no traces of webs. Immatures: Similar to adults but markings less distinct; feathers of upperparts show traces of rufous with white margins; breast less distinctly streaked than in adults.

Breeding Nest: On the ground, a slight depression sparsely lined with dry vegetable matter. Eggs: 3-4 usually 4; pale buff, thickly speckled with dark chestnut-brown and purplish gray. Dwight (1895) found Least Sandpipers nesting on Sable Island, where they still nest in numbers (Miller 1985). On 4 June 1907, Harold F. Tufts saw downy young accompanied by parent birds on a small marsh on Cape Sable Island, and other evidence of breeding there has been obtained from time to time since. A nest with four eggs was found on Conrad Beach, Halifax County, on 3 June 1971 (I.A.McLaren), and other nests and fledglings have been found there and in nearby areas in subsequent years. Suggestions of breeding have also come from Guysborough and Richmond counties.

Range Breeds across the northern parts of continental North America from Alaska to Labrador and, in the east, south to Nova Scotia and, recently, Massachusetts. Winters from the southern United States to central South America and the West Indies.

Remarks During migration this little sandpiper is as much at home on sandy beaches and exposed tidal flats as it is on salt marshes and along pools near the coast. Although it does mingle with the other sandpipers when resting on the sand beaches at high tide, it tends to remain somewhat aloof from the others. Many times I have noted flocks of 40–50 or more segregated from the others, resting higher up on the beach where the pattern of their plumage tends to blend with the pebbles.

It is most likely to be confused with the Semipalmated Sandpiper, which is slightly larger and has a grayish rather than brownish cast to its upperparts. The legs of the Least Sandpiper are greenish gray, but those of the Semipalmated Sandpiper are black. Smaller sandpipers are commonly called "peeps," and none may legally be killed in Canada or the United States.