This Greater Yellowlegs Sandpiper (Tringa melanoleuca) was working the waterline in Great Cove yesterday morning at high tide.
Her name begs the question: Greater than what? (Sex assumed.) Well, she’s greater (that is, about four inches longer) than her cousin the Lesser Yellowlegs Sandpiper (Tringa flavipes). Today’s visitor does have a great set of legs that allow her to resist small waves and stand in deeper water than her cousin:
The thin, yellow-streaming legs attached to Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs Sandpipers earned them the most disgusting collective name in bird terminology – a group is called an “Incontinence of Yellowlegs.” (Brooklin, Maine)