We had a great moon last night so I sat out on the beach for a couple hours. After about an hour a group of about 20 Spotted Sandpipers nestled together about 10 feet from me at the waters edge. They would huddle together for about two minutes at which point one of them would freak out and start running in a circle crying out in alarm. This would cause the entire group to wake up and freak out as well. After about 30 seconds the group would realize there was nothing alarming going on and they would all huddle together again and apparently go back to sleep. This went on for about an hour until they moved on to another area of the beach. I found the entire process extremely amusing.

I looked into how much sleep a Sandpipers needs without much luck. One article suggests that “Sometimes a number fairly close together may be found crouching on the sand or gravel asleep, or they may sleep standing, often on one foot. One or more are awake, however, watching, all from time to time open their eyes and look about.” Maybe this group had an overly anxious lookout.

I did find an article noting that migratory birds can rest part of their brain while flying. I have read Whales do the same while migrating. In the food habits section of a UM site they note that “Spotted sandpipers are opportunistic carnivores. They eat nearly all animals that are small enough for them to eat, with the exception of toad tadpoles.” But give no explanation of why they don’t eat toad tadpoles. Hmmm…