Ashley and Crippen Photographers, Toronto|Corporate Headshots/Executive Headshots 

Birds

Spotted Sandpiper

The Spotted Sandpiper is a common bird, widespread across much of North America in summer and the winter in the far south and down into South America. It is usually seen singly rather than in flocks, on the edges of coastal mud flats, in marshes and along streams and ponds. When moving across the ground, it has a distinctive bobbing, teetering walk. It lays up to 4 greeny or buffy eggs in a depression in the ground near water. These are incubated for around 21-24 days – often by the male bird only; the young are ready to leave the nest soon after hatching and are fully independent by 3 weeks. The adult is a short-necked bird with a rather long tail and flesh-colored legs. It has an olive-brown back, which extends down as a wash on the sides of the breast, a light eye stripe and white eye ring and is white below. In breeding plumage, the mature bird has a distinctive large, round back, black spots on its underparts. The Spotted Sandpiper flies with stiff, shallow wingbeats and shows a short white stripe n the upper wing. It eats insects, small fish and crustaceans.