We have to admit that we have a special attraction to shorebirds. We’ve written about them before in these pages, and there’s no doubt they will come up more than once in future columns. Maybe it’s the fact that most of them are with us largely just during migration periods (only a handful nest in Maine). Maybe it’s because they tend to inhabit that constantly moving and mysterious area between the sea and the land and somehow find enough food there to make tremendous long distance journeys. Maybe their tendency to occur in flocks has something to do with their appeal.

As a refresher, when we speak of shorebirds we mean something a bit more specific than just birds that occur along the shore. We mean basically the plovers and sandpipers but some of the birds in the sandpiper family don’t have “sandpiper” in their names including yellowlegs, godwits, sanderlings, and whimbrels among others. When we say “shorebirds” we don’t include herons, egrets, ibises, ducks, grebes, loons, or rails. Although they occur along the shore, they aren’t in the “shorebird” family.

The southward migration of shorebirds through Maine starts sometimes even in late June and always by early July, as what are probably failed breeders give up and head back south. By later in July and early August, the bulk of the adult shorebirds that have nested in the Arctic or northern boreal Canada and Alaska are moving south. They leave the young birds to fatten up and somehow chart their own migration south to a wintering ground that they have never visited, thousands of miles away. We start to see these juvenile birds usually later in August and into September. With careful scrutiny they can be distinguished from the adults by their bright, fresh plumage, typically with light edges to the feathers on the back and inner wing. The adults, on the other hand, will be a bit more disheveled with worn and frayed feathers—not surprising when you consider what they have just been through and that they won’t replace those feathers until later in the season.

At low tide, a scan of many expanses of mudflat in the region should reveal small birds slowly walking around probing and picking as they search for small invertebrates. The smallest are the Least and Semipalmated sandpipers, both nearly the size of a House Sparrow but with longer legs and bill. Look for the yellowish legs and warm brown back of the Least as compared to the more dull brown or gray back and black legs of the Semipalmated. A larger pair of common shorebirds to watch for in our area are the Greater and Lesser yellowlegs. Both are tall, long-legged birds, and fairly large-bodied and indeed have bright yellow legs. As the names suggest, the Lesser is smaller than the Greater and has a finer, slightly shorter bill. The Greater Yellowlegs call, a mellow “tu-tu-tu,” is one of the most familiar sounds of Maine’s coves and harbors from now through early October. The Lesser Yellowlegs migrates earlier than the Greater coming through in higher numbers in late July and early August while the Greater Yellowlegs reaches its peak in late August and September.

Why not try your hand at shorebird identification this weekend? Visit the Boothbay Region Land Trust’s Oven’s Mouth Preserve at low or half tide or look out over the saltmarsh at the Zak Preserve or find your own favorite shoreline spot, bring your binoculars (a scope if you have one), camera, a bird ID book (there are some good ones specific to shorebirds, though they’re not necessary), and friend or family member, and who knows? Maybe you’ll discover you share our passion for shorebirding!

Dr. Jeff Wells is the senior scientist for the Boreal Songbird Initiative. During his time at the famed Cornell Lab of Ornithology and as the Audubon Society's national bird conservation director, Dr. Wells earned a reputation as one of the nation's leading bird experts and conservation biologists. Jeff's grandfather, the late John Chase, was a columnist for the Boothbay Register for many years. Allison Childs Wells, also formerly of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is a widely published natural history writer and a senior director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine. Together, they have been writing and teaching people about birds for decades. The Maine natives are authors of the highly acclaimed book, “Maine's Favorite Birds.”