Mass Audubon's Breeding Bird Atlas 2

Preliminary Results:
Spotted Sandpiper: Teetering on the verge of prosperity

From the Aleutian Islands south to California and east all the way to Virginia, Spotted Sandpipers can be found breeding more places in North America than any other sandpiper. This species, which is also known as “spotty,” “teeter-peep,” and probably several other nicknames, is a common sight in both salt and freshwater habitat. Spotted Sandpipers have bred in Massachusetts from time immemorial, and they maintain a solid presence even today.

Spotted Sandpipers are hardly large enough to make a morsel for market hunters, their feathers were not used by the garment trade, and they tend to be solitary most of the year. Consequently, Spotted Sandpipers did not suffer the same heavy losses as many other shorebirds early in the 20th century. Also, incredibly flexible habitat preferences helped Spotted Sandpipers maintain their population in the face of a changing landscape. Spotted Sandpipers could nest not only on ocean beaches, but also on the shores of lakes and reservoirs, and even in such marginal habitat as drainage ponds and surface-mining pits. As a result, they remained common and widespread throughout the Commonwealth right up through Atlas 1.

How is it that Spotted Sandpipers are able to make their homes near wetlands that other shorebirds would turn their bills up at?  For one thing, their nest requirements aren’t too great.  A simple hollow dug by both mates and possibly lined with some dead grass or dry wood is all that Spotted Sandpipers will need.  As long as a site has some water (even a small stream) for drinking and foraging as well as some cover for the chicks to be brooded in, Spotted Sandpipers can use it. 

Their diet is another component of their adaptability.  Spotted Sandpipers will eat a variety of foods, including insects and insect larvae, spiders, crustaceans, and worms.  Midge larvae, a major food source for breeding Spotted Sandpipers, are renowned for their ability to survive in even the most degraded wetlands.  Spottys will also eat the carrion of dead fish and amphibians, when it is available.  It’s not hard to understand why their numbers have been steadily increasing into Atlas 2.

Worcester, Essex, and Franklin Counties all appear to be seeing an increase in Spotted Sandpiper breeding activity from Atlas 1.  A lot of the data is still coming in for the Berkshires and the Islands, which are the two areas where we’re not seeing as many birds as we might expect.  Spotted Sandpipers, along with a handful of other sandpipers, are curious in that the females are larger, more aggressive, and more active in courtship than the males are.  Often, the two sexes cooperate to rear the chicks.  If there is a skew towards males in the population, though, a female may leave her brood in her mate’s care and mate with another male in the hopes of producing more offspring. 

The best time to confirm Spotted Sandpiper sightings is in the early- to mid-breeding season; that is, from late May into early June. Their chicks fledge and leave their parents less than three weeks after hatching, and even in midsummer many adults are losing the ventral spotting that distinguishes them from the young of the year.