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I saw a group of 5 of these sandpipers last week in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. They were 2 to 2 1/2 times the size of a least sandpiper and were not very skittish. They liked to rest in the tall grasses and stretch thier neck upwards occasionally. The breast of one was heavily streaked.
Thanks for your help,
Gail
Hi Gail, this is a Pectoral Sandpiper. You got the key features, sort of like a large Least Sandpiper. The yellow legs and brownish breast (pectoral region) are the main marks. They tend to like grassy areas although the ones up here are being forced into all sorts of odd places by real high tides. Declan
Hi Gail, as indicated by Declan, this is a Pectoral Sandpiper - juvenile plumage. Other features that makes it different from Least Sandpiper are the pale orange-yellow on the base of the bill (all black on Least Sandpiper) and the very long primary projection in juvenile individuals (very short or absent on Least Sandpiper).
