I spent a pleasant 30 minutes Wednesday just watching this little beauty fish in Great Cove. She often waded into the incoming tide up to her chest and once swam; she also would probe the mud in shallow water and gobble unseen delicacies. (Sex assumed.)
Often, she would run around schools of small fish, then herd them into a circle like a sheepdog and stab at her prey. She was at best 10 percent successful with the fish, but that apparently was good enough for her; she seemed to be enjoying herself.
She’s called a Greater Yellowlegs sandpiper (Tringa melanoleuca), which begs the question “Greater than what?” Why, of course, she’s greater than the Lesser Yellowlegs sandpiper (Tringa flavipes), which looks like her, but is about four inches shorter and has a bill that is only about the length of its head.
Both the Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs are best known for their skinny, yellow legs that seem to stream down into the water when they’re still. Unfortunately, this appearance has resulted in them being given the most repulsive collective name in the animal kingdom: a group of Greaters and/or Lessers is called “an incontinence of Yellowlegs.” (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on September 21, 2022.)