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Purple Sandpiper

Status Locally fairly common in winter. It occurs in flocks along the rocky shores on the Atlantic and Fundy coasts, and even in the sheltered Minas Basin. Usually it is first reported in early November, occasionally in October; most are gone by the end of April, but laggards are regular in May (latest 4 June 1957). There have been only five records between 31 July and the end of September, but since its rocky habitat is not searched by birders as thoroughly as are beaches and salt marshes during late summer, it may actually arrive here earlier than our records show.

Description Length: 20-23 cm. Adults in spring: Dark slaty brown and black above with slight purplish gloss, feather edges and tips being broadly marked with buff or white, or sometimes a pale ochre; wing coverts and secondaries tipped with white; underparts mainly white, the breast heavily washed with ashy gray and with indefinite brown spots extending along flanks; rump black; inner secondaries with much white; chin whitish gray; legs dull orange to olive-ochre. Adults in autumn and winter: Upperparts nearly black with purple iridescence, feathers edged with pale gray; below white, with broad breast band of ashy gray.

Range Breeds in arctic regions of eastern North America and the Old World. In North America, winters on the eastern seacoast south to Maryland.

Remarks My most interesting contact with this bird occurred on 14 January 1925 at the mouth of Port Joli Harbour, Queens County, on the open Atlantic coast. The temperature was hovering around -18 C, the waves were pounding the kelp-covered rocks and the spray flew freely. There I found 50-60 of these little sandpipers blithely running about as though it were a day in June, seemingly oblivious of the restless and icy waters that all but engulfed them. I particularly recall the ease with which they were approached, the result, perhaps, of their lack of familiarity with humans.