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White-rumped Sandpiper

Status Common transient. It is only occasional as a spring migrant, mostly in late May (extreme dates 24 April-10 June). It is a common fall migrant, with a few arriving during July in some years (average 1 August, earliest 6 July); its numbers are highest in late August and during September, but stragglers regularly persist until early November. There are half a dozen late December records and one for 20 January 1977 at Louisbourg (R. Burrows). In addition, there was a remarkable sighting of two birds, which had presumably overwintered, at Sydney Harbour on 23 March 1974 (H. Hopkins).

Description Length: 18-20 cm. All plumages: White stripe over eye. Adults in spring: Upperparts dark brown, variegated with feather edges of buff, nufous or white; breast and flanks narrowly streaked with dark brown; rump always white; legs dark greenish gray; toes not webbed. Adults in autumn: Breast streaking often suffused with a vague breast band of light ashy gray or even pale buff; upperparts much grayer and less variegated than in summer.

Range Breeds along arctic coasts and southern arctic islands from Alaska to Baffin Island. Migrates through interior of continent and along the Atlantic coast. Winters in southern parts of South America.

Remarks It is found on sand beaches and mudflats, mingled with hosts of other small shorebirds, and also on the margins of brackish pools just at the shoreline. In view of the fact that numbers of these birds loiter along our shores until late November, it is surprising to read that others of the species, seemingly impatient to reach their distant wintering grounds, have been seen along the coast of Brazil in August and as far south as Cape Horn by September 6 (Wetmore in Bent 1927).

This shorebird is readily identified by its white rump, which can best be seen in flight a mark it does not share with any of its small relatives that occur regularly in Nova Scotia.