I can’t help but wonder if Least Sandpipers (Calidris minutilla) suffer from an inferiority complex, surrounded as they are by “Great” Blue Herons and “Great” Egrets.
Early Saturday morning, I spotted a small flock of these tiny birds at my local marsh in an area where the water levels were really low, revealing a muddy area with shallow pools of water that seemed perfect for these little wading birds. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website, the Least Sandpiper is the smallest shorebird in the world, weighing in at about one ounce (28 grams) and measuring five to six inches long (13-15 cm).
I suspect that these Least Sandpipers are in the process of migration, probably eventually heading further south. At this time of the year we start to see all kinds of unusual birds that make brief stops at my local marshland on their way to more distant destinations.
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Mike Powell 