One of the shore birds we saw while walking the beaches in September in British Columbia was the sandpiper. At first I thought these are the least sandpipers as they were fairly small, but they could be sanderlings which also look very similar. There are about 20 species and identification can be a challenge.
The sanderlings have dark/black legs while the least sandpipers have greenish legs. As you can see the legs are dark so I’m leaning more towards sanderlings. What do you think?
These little shorebirds were seen at the edges of the water at the Esquimalt Lagoon looking for insects, crustaceans and invertebrates to snack on.
They have brownish wings and upper parts with white bellies.
They didn’t seem bothered that we were walking along the shore looking for shells and rocks and were quite happy for me to take several photos of them.
I’m sharing with Wild Bird Wednesday, I’d Rather B Birdin’ and Saturday’s Critters.
