This is Bird Note.

Here and there along winter shorelines both on the Pacific and Atlantic,

little flocks of pale, silvery shorebirds probe at the water's edge,

keeping pace with each wave's edge and flow.

These small sandpipers are called sanderlings.

Rachel Carson, whose book under the sea wind,

set a high standard for nature writing,

described sanderlings as running with a twinkle of black feet.

Carson depicted sanderlings foraging along the beach

as keeping in the thin film at the edge of the ebbing surf

where puffs of blown spew or seafroth rolled like thistle down.

Sanderlings also winter in the Hawaiian Islands.

In the native language, they are known as Hunakai, or sea foam,

an apt description of the sandpipers' pale winter plumage

and their nimble dance with the waves.

In the warmer months, sanderlings nest in the extreme north,

most north of the Arctic Circle in remote sites in Canada,

Greenland and Siberia.

In winter, however, they spread out as far as any bird in the world.

Their silvery flocks are sprinkled along beaches

throughout the temperate and tropic zones on six of the seven continents.

For Bird Note, I'm Mary McCann.

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