Spotted Sandpiper, walking
Actitis macularius
Spotted Sandpiper · Green-Wood Cemetery · 29 August 2026
A Spotted Sandpiper on foot at Green-Wood at the end of August, working the edge of a path rather than open water. It is the one sandpiper that breeds on nearly every lake and river in North America, and on migration it takes insects from bare ground and paving as readily as from a shoreline, turning up on lawns and cemetery drives where no other sandpiper would.
Late August plumage, the breeding spots gone from the breast. The constant bobbing of the rear end, which never stops even when the bird is standing still, is the quickest way to pick one out at a distance.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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