Sandpipers Wintering in Mid-Atlantic States

     Most sandpiper species winter farther south than the Middle Atlantic States.  Farther south there is less chance of ice and snow impeding their finding invertebrates to eat.  And although it's not obvious to most people, especially those living inland, at least seven kinds of sandpipers regularly winter in the Middle Atlantic States.  They don't all winter in one habitat, however, but in at least five of them, along the Atlantic Ocean Coast and inland.  But wherever they live, all these sandpipers blend into their environments to the point of being invisible until they move.  Camouflage protects many kinds of creatures quite well.
     Many dunlin and a few least sandpipers, both plain species of little birds that nest on the Arctic tundra, winter on the broad mud flats of channels in salt marshes along the seacoast.  These sandpipers get invertebrates when the tide goes out, exposing the unfrozen, snow-free flats.  And, by  the way, a few least sandpipers winter along small waterways in inland meadows where the water and stream edges remain ice and snow-free.
     Sanderlings are a small, light-colored sandpiper that rear young on the tundra and winter on ocean beaches where ocean water slides up and down the sand, keeping it snow-free and full of invertebrates to eat.  Groups of sanderlings run up the beaches ahead of incoming wavelets, but run after the water as it slides down the beach to the ocean.  As the water retreats again to the ocean, sanderlings pick up invertebrates to consume.  And so the sanderlings run up and down the beaches all day, every day through winter.
     Purple sandpipers and ruddy turnstones are darker sandpipers that, in winter, frequent human-made jetties of boulders that jut into the Atlantic Ocean from Mid-Atlantic beaches.  The jetties' job is to prevent the erosion of the sandy beaches.  Purple sandpipers and turnstones are adapted to getting invertebrates from rocky niches, where other shorebirds don't venture.  These two types of sandpipers are dark in color, which camouflages them on the dark jetties and other rocky, coastal habitats.
     Although most of them go farther south for the winter, a few each of greater yellowlegs and lesser yellowlegs, which do have yellow legs, winter around open water along the ocean shore and inland.  These sandpiper species hatch offspring around lakes in Canada, which is a departure from the nesting habitats of most sandpipers.  And these long-legged sandpipers, unlike most of their relatives, which are brown, are gray to blend into the water color they wade through the year around to get invertebrates.              
     Wilson's snipe are a kind of inland sandpiper that annually winters along running, ice-free brooks in meadows.  They rapidly pump their long beaks up and down like a sewing machine needle in mud under shallow water to pull out invertebrates.   
     American woodcocks are sandpipers that live and nest on the leafy floors of bottomland woods.  A few of them winter in that same habitat in the Middle Atlantic States.  Woodcocks have long bills they probe into soft soil after earthworms and other kinds of invertebrates.  When snow covers the ground, woodcocks resort to getting invertebrates from ice and snow-free springs, seeps and trickles in the woods.
     These camouflaged and beautiful sandpiper species are the ones that most regularly winter in the Mid-Atlantic States.  They winter on niches that are ice and snow-free so they can catch the invertebrates they need to survive.  When out in winter, look for some of these sandpipers in their respective habitats.