These little birds never keep still

YOU must have had a stroll along the seafront of Worthing, Littlehampton, Goring Gap, Climping or Lancing at some time on a calm winter's day. Maybe you have wandered along the sands at East Head at the mouth of Chichester harbour, or down the footpath alongside Bracklesham Bay.

In which case you must have seen this tiny bird running about on the sand like a white mouse.

I draw attention to them now in early spring because this is when we get some of our best numbers in Sussex.

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Sanderlings are on their way back from way down south and they spend a short while on our sandy shores.

Back in January I watched them down on the Portuguese coast at Setubal. They could easily be the birds you will see here now. Or they may be birds that wintered on the west coast of Africa.

They will wander down to Casablanca. They will know the coast of Mauritania and on the way back Santander, the coast near Bordeaux, and Brest.

They know Omaha as well as they know Ostrov Bolshevik in Nova Zemlya. Some will even know Perth and Brisbane too, if they go the other way round the world via Vladivostok.

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Sanderlings are probably the world's greatest travellers of all.

They are restless, energetic little birds and they never keep still. Flying at nearly 60 miles an hour they could just as easily be in Dutch waters in a couple of hours as be in Sussex.

We usually record a total of about 100 in Sussex in March. The biggest recorded total for the UK seems to be 14,000 in Morcambe Bay about 40 years ago.

I myself have never seen more than about 20 together in a flock, and that was in Holland.

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They have declined over four deades, with a UK total of only 10,000 with nowadays only 300 at Morcambe Bay. We used to have about 600 in Sussex.

Never mind, they are still there and now is the moment to go and see them.

Dogs being exercised on the wide open sandy beaches find sanderlings irresistible and chase them but of course the birds know all about dogs all over the world and they just speed away to a quieter patch.

They run with the tide, keeping their little black toes in the edge of the water as they pick up sandhoppers or small snails and tiny worms. Until April's end they will be silvery white.

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But then they will grow a lovely reddy brown plumage that will hide them on the arctic shore.

But they spend as little time as possible in Russia. Six weeks from end of July to mid August and breeding is all over, and the parents whizz back to Sussex leaving the juveniles to find their own way around the world.

What a lovely life. No fuss, no luggage, no documents: just go.

Williamson's

Weekly

Nature Notes with

Richard Williamson

A sanderling

These little birds never keep still