Sanderling, Napatree

Sanderlings are those wonderful little sprites you see scurrying along the shore just ahead of the incoming foam of breaking waves and following the wave-ebb seaward. These members of the Sandpiper clan are here all winter, constantly active in search of tiny invertebrates cast up by the surf. (Like many other members of the sandpiper family Scolopacidae, they leave for a time in the spring and summer to breed in the high Arctic, before returning in August and September.) Sometimes, when it's really cold, I'll see a Sanderling balanced on one dark foot and leg, its other limb tucked into its body feathers as a way to conserve energy and keep warm. But today, it wasn't all that chilly so the beachcombers were doing a kind of Calidris alba two-step—a synchronized pas de deux on the wet sand.