Sanderling

Voice

A short, hard, liquid twick or plit, often repeated two or three times on take-off and much sharper than the rasping note of Dunlin. It is heard over the beach all year, most of all in August and September when small parties shift back and forth along the tideline.

Identification

Small, stocky sandpiper with a straight black bill, black legs and no hind toe. The winter plumage is the palest of any wader: pale grey above, snow-white below, with a black shoulder patch. In breeding dress head, breast and upperparts are rusty red spotted black, cut off sharply against the white belly. In flight it shows the broadest, brightest wingbar of all small sandpipers.

Confusion species

In winter no other sandpiper is this pale: Dunlin is greyer and darker, longer and more decurved in the bill, with a grey wash across the breast. The black shoulder patch and the missing hind toe settle it. In breeding plumage a rufous Sanderling can suggest Curlew Sandpiper, but that species is longer-legged, more curve-billed and red right down onto the belly.

Habitat

Pre-eminently a bird of the wide sandy beach, always on the wet sand where the waves run out. It also uses sandbanks, groynes and, in smaller numbers, the edges of mudflats and shell banks. At high water it rests in tight parties on dry sand or behind the tideline, often pressed up against a groyne.

Range and movements

Breeds on the high Arctic tundra of Greenland, Svalbard, Siberia and Canada; within Europe only on Svalbard. Along the Dutch coast it is a numerous passage migrant and winter visitor, with the largest numbers on the Wadden islands and the Zeeland beaches. Iberian sandy beaches from Galicia to Andalusia also hold substantial winter flocks.

• Resident
• Breeding (summer)
• Winter
• Passage
• Migration direction
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

Where and when to look

Walk a wide North Sea beach on a falling tide in September or October and follow the tideline; the birds often let you within ten metres if you keep moving steadily. At high water check fenced beach heads, where they roost. Watch for Dunlin and Curlew Sandpipers running with them, which make the size difference obvious at once.

Conservation status

Still numerous worldwide, but the trend along the East Atlantic flyway is downward. Disturbance of sandy beaches by recreation and off-lead dogs costs precious winter energy, while beach nourishment and coastal defence alter the food supply. On the high Arctic breeding grounds snowmelt and lemming cycles govern breeding success, and both are becoming less predictable.