This is bird note.

Almost any time of year when you visit the ocean shoreline, Pacific, Atlantic, or the Gulf of Mexico, you're

likely to find a batch of sandpipers and plovers, running along the retreating wave edge,

probing in the mudflats, or flying up suddenly in a tight flock.

They're found so often near the water's edge that the whole group of them, plovers,

sandpipers and others, is known officially as shorebirds.

It's easy to think shorebirds like these spend all their time,

well, on the shore, but that's not the case.

Most migrate to the case.

Most migrate to the Arctic in summer, where many nest on the tundra along rushing streams or on rocky mountainsides, like this black-bellied plover.

One of our most familiar shorebirds doesn't live on the shore at all.

The handsome kill deer is a year-round resident of open fields, lawns, parking

lots, and even driveways.

The long-billed curlew, which winters on the Florida, Gulf, and Pacific coasts,

actually heads inland to nest in the grasslands and sagebrush of the arid west.

That's about as unsure-like as it gets.

So the next time you see a shorebird, ask it where it's been.

For Bird Note, I'm Michael Stein.