Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, February 1, 2025
The temptation when coming across a sandpiper is to dismiss it as being anything out of the ordinary and simply mentally dump it into a generic barrel of sandpipers and let it go at that. But there are differences that set each species apart. Take this Baird’s Sandpiper, for example. It was one of the last species of sandpipers to be described in North America. While it looks rather similar to other “peeps”, it is slightly larger than most and has long wings which extend beyond the tail. These it holds in such a way as to give the body on overall horizontal appearance.
It nests in drier habitat in the high Arctic where vegetation is sparse and stunted. They may spend their winters in shortgrass environments up to 15,000 feet in elevation. Their journey to and from these extremes generally takes them through the prairies of North America, but a few may wander to either coast. Females generally begin their southward journey before the males, followed by the young of that year. This round trip may cover 9,300 miles and be accomplished in as little as five weeks. Here in Washington the fall is when they are generally seen, and those individuals are usually immature birds.
Unlike many other shorebirds, they seldom probe into sand or mud, but pick off their prey from the ground surface or low vegetation. During migration they regularly stop at high mountain lakes where they may feed on invertebrates found on snowbanks. The female is able to lay a clutch of up to five eggs equaling 120% of her body mass in four days. And this she does having just completed her lengthy trip northward and without stored fat reserves!
Just another sandpiper? Hardly! It is unique, distinctive from all others. Not surprisingly, God spoke of the nation of Israel in this same way: “And who is like your people, Israel, a unique nation in the earth? Their God went to claim a nation for himself! You made a name for yourself by doing great and awesome deeds when you drove out nations before your people whom you had delivered from the Egyptian empire and its gods.” (1 Chronicles 17:21 NET) And just like the sandpipers and Israel, we too are special, each with our unique successes and failures. May we avoid the temptation to look through eyes that see just another sandpiper.