Bird of the Month: Common

The Common Sandpiper

by john mcewen illustrated by carry akroyd

… Stranger! these gloomy boughs Had charms for him; and here he loved to sit, His only visitants a straggling sheep, The stone-chat, or the glancing sand-piper

William Wordsworth, from Lines Left upon a Seat in a Yew-Tree…

The ‘glancing sandpiper’ refers to the common sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos).

‘Glancing’ is the perfect word to describe the glimmer of its white breast (hypoleucos, white) as it skims across water so close to the surface that it could be a winning stone pitched in a game of ducks and drakes.

The common sandpiper’s breeding range encompasses the world, apart from the Americas, where its western equivalent, the spotted sandpiper, holds sway. The European contingent migrates to Africa in the winter.

In the British Isles, they can be seen anywhere but for breeding prefer the uplands. There has been a 20-per-cent contraction since 1972. The population of 13,000 is now concentrated in north-west Scotland, with lesser representation in south-west Scotland, north-west England, Wales and Ireland’s western fringes. The peak arrival is in April and May.

When excited, the starling-sized bird springs off on its skimming way, often as not along the course of a fast-running burn or river. Its piping call is equally unmistakable: high-pitched to communicate above a rush of water. It’s a haunting sound when heard at night, as the bird passes on migration, sometimes in small packs.

Gerry Cambridge’s poem Actitis hypoleucos mentions the Stinchar, an Ayrshire river: Tickie-a-dee, tickie-a-dee, tickie-a-dee – then the stiff-winged glide onto river-bank, look! – and movement unshingling it back into bird. Diminutive wader ceaselessly, curiously gyrating, too full of energy for its dot of highstrung sinew flown thousands of miles back to the bloodstream of Scottish rivers. Piper of the sand; dainty tripper over shingle; water-sprite of the first of the spring evenings. Surely it should be slumped by a boulder after that journey? – but no, here it is, tickie-a-dee, tickie-a-dee, tickie-a-dee: a sparse repertoire, but its own. Matt and Jim and I once photographed one, brooding its eggs, under a gorse bush on the banks of the Stinchar – the nervy sprint to the buff, mottled clutch. Then uncharacteristic stillness, renewing this ancient tradition of pipers.

The nest is usually a lightly grassed depression screened from sight. River banks, islands and loch or reservoir edges are popular. Near rivers, the bird can choose orchards, gardens or even herbaceous borders.

The clutch is determined by the food supply. In temperate climates, it is four – the buff egg further camouflaged by brown blotches and grey speckles. Incubation is shared, with the cock the more assiduous parent. Chicks feed on insects – also the staple adult diet.

As a shore dweller, the common sandpiper is not a digger, even though it is traditionally known as the ‘summer snipe’.