Solitary Sandpiper

Photo by Stan Tekiela

by Stan Tekiela
© NatureSmart

August 5, 2024

I love the diversity found within nature. I also really love the nature rule breakers. You know, the critters that don’t seem to follow the rules that we people think nature should follow. So last week while leading a photo workshop to photograph Black Bears in northern Minnesota I was reminded once again that nature exemplifies the diversity in nature.

My small group of photographers were following a female Black Bear with two yearling cubs. The bears were walking through a wetland area with a few fallen trees and a couple of high spots that were dry and covered with green grasses. As we moved closer, I could see a fairly large bird fly out of one of the high spots and land about 5 yards away right out in the open.

Here in the Northwoods, there is only a handful of bird species that it could be, this deep into the woods. The habitat is mixed conifer and deciduous trees with a small stream and associated wetlands. The long winters, and short but hot and buggy summers, really define this habitat.

Looking over to the last spot I saw the bird land I could clearly see it was a shorebird. Its long legs and long beak offset by a large, full body told me it definitely was a Solitary Sandpiper (Tringa solitaria). Yep, you read that correctly, a sandpiper deep in the Northwoods. How crazy is that?

When you think of sandpipers you automatically think of the ocean or some sandy beach shore. Or perhaps a freshwater lake or something along those lines. You definitely don’t think deep northern conifer woods filled with Black Bears and Bobcats.

As its name implies, the Solitary Sandpiper is usually seen alone, even during migration. Although sometimes it can be seen in small congregations of less than 10. It is definitely a freshwater bird that even uses freshwater during winter. It winters in Central and South America, especially in the Amazon River basin where fresh water is abundant. And because of this, there haven’t been many studies done on this species. There is much that isn’t known about this bird.

These Northwoods Sandpipers have an interesting habit of bobbing their tail and back half of its body while it is feeding. They hang out in wooded swamps, along small woodland streams, ditches or flooded fields.

Nesting is where the Solitary Sandpiper really stands out among the other sandpipers. There are about 85 different kinds of sandpipers, but it’s the Solitary that doesn’t nest on the ground like the others. Instead, the male finds the old nests of other birds such as American Robins, Rusty Blackbirds and Canada Jays. Females will make the final selection and then she will remove some of the interior lining of the old used nest and replace it with fresh plant materials before laying her eggs.

The old nests are usually located near the trunk of the tree and only 6 to 8 feet off the ground. So not only is this sandpiper found in the Northwoods and not at the shore, but it is also nesting up in trees using other bird species old nests and not on the ground like other shorebirds. How much crazier can this bird get?

So now you know why I was so distracted from the Black Bears when this bird popped up in front of us. Of course, the others in my group really didn’t care about this strange bird in the Northwoods, but only because they didn’t understand how different and cool this shorebird was compared to other shorebirds.

The Solitary Sandpiper was first described in the early 1800’s by ornithologists but it wasn’t until the early 1900’s was their nesting activity discovered. So, it took nearly 100 years before it was discovered just how unusual the nesting behavior of this rather unique bird.

Over 90 percent of the global population of the Solitary Sandpiper breeds in the boreal or Northwoods of North America. Most of this is in Alaska, Canada, and Labrador. In the lower 48 states it only nests in northern Minnesota. I think now you can see why I was so happy to get a chance to see and capture some images of this very unusual sandpiper. Until next time…

Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels extensively to study and capture images of wildlife. He can be followed at www.instagram .com and www.facebookcom. He can be contacted via his webpage at www.naturesmart.com.