This is a tiny Least Sandpiper, seeing them was probably the bird highlight of my recent Florida trip. It's a species that I hadn't seen before, having not been to Florida in autumn previously. Migration was just starting to build and towards the end of my trip the numbers of wading birds on the beaches was increasing on a daily basis. The small flocks of sandpipers could be found scurrying around on the sand, right on the surf-line. They were feeding on the flies and insects amongst seaweed. The flies would be disturbed by the incoming wavelets and this seemed to be a feeding strategy. The yellow legs were diagnostic, all the other small sandpipers.....Americans call them peeps..... have black legs. Apparently, in muddy environments these yellow legs are often obscured and can be hard to see but in the clean environment of surf, this is not an issue. It is hard to get the impression of size from these pictures but they are noticeably smaller than the more well known.... (by UK birders)..... Sanderling. Also, notice the very slightly, but noticeable down curved beak in the Least Sandpiper.
I actually took hundreds of pictures of this species but it was hard to get good shots because they were scurrying around constantly and were rarely still.
For comparrison, here's a Sanderling, much more snowy white, slightly larger and of course, black legs, and straight beak.
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