Bird of the Day

Purples are the winter shorebird in southern Maine. You might occasionally spot a small group of Sanderlings, a couple Dunlin, or even a Ruddy Turnstone now and then if you’re lucky, but flocks of Purple Sandpipers are common off of many rocky points along the coast. For a close-up, see this entry I made back in November when they were first arriving from the Arctic. They are larger than most sandpipers and also darker with orange at the base of their bills and orange legs. If you catch them in flight like in the photo above, you might note how little white shows up in the wings compared to other shorebirds. The Purple Sandpiper is also the February bird of the month in my 2010 calendar.