Shorebirds arrive at Texas beaches ahead of autumn
In the waning days of August on trips to the beach, you may notice feathered visitors that are just arriving.
They’re called shorebirds, a general term for birds such as plovers and sandpipers that occupy beaches along the Texas Gulf Coast. Most shorebirds are migratory with some traveling from breeding grounds on the Arctic tundra to winter grounds in South America. Others stop to spend winters on our shores.
Of the approximately 52 species of North American shorebirds, we host 38 that scurry around nearby shores, marshes, wetland prairies and inland lakes during spring and fall migration. Seventeen species spend the winter on our shores, and four species, including killdeer, reside here.
Wilson’s plovers breed along our shores during summer and migrate to Latin American winter homes. Ruddy turnstones breed on Arctic grounds during summer and migrate to our shores for the winter.
Pectoral sandpipers migrate astonishingly long distances between breeding grounds on the Arctic tundra and winter homes in places including Argentina. Yet they stop en route to rest and feed along our shores.
Autumn shorebird migration begins as early as July and peaks between now and midSeptember. An array of shorebirds generally shows up during the last two weeks of August and through Labor Day weekend — barring a hurricane.
Look for shorebirds between high and low tides along the beach’s littoral zone, where they probe soft sand and mud for invertebrates such as marine worms, snails and insects.
Identifying shorebirds is not as easy as identifying backyard birds. We see yard birds all the time but only occasionally see shorebirds — unless we live in a beach house. Adding to the conundrums of shorebird identification are the plumages of
muted browns and tans that camouflage birds occupying beaches.
But precisely naming shorebirds must not hamper happy times watching them. Besides, many can be quickly identified by telltale feathering and behavior.
For example, sanderlings are as frisky as wrens and as big as orioles with snowwhite undersides except for a few individuals with russet color remaining on the breast from summer breeding plumage. Meanwhile, they race like frenetic beachcombers along the edges of incoming waves to pick up invertebrates deposited on wet sand.
Ruddy turnstones are robin- sized birds with a namesake ruddy back, red legs, black breasts, white undersides and black-andwhite harlequin faces. They use chisel- shaped beaks to flip over pebbles or poke into the rocky crevices of jetties to ferret out invertebrates.