December 2, 2009 --  The Full Moon tide was subsiding when I arrived at Ponce Inlet.  The waves pounded the jetty and the birds were in a feeding frenzy.  On the protected side terns and gulls hovered and plunged.  Sandwich Terns dove and plucked silver fish from below the surface.  Ring-billed and Laughing Gulls gleaned stunned fish from the surface.

    On the other side of the jetty a band of agile shorebirds worked the rocks.  Sea spray splashed the Ruddy Turnstones as they scurried on the highest stones.  Another bird, about the size of the turnstones but darker and plumper, attacked the waves head-on.  The Purple Sandpiper fluttered up and out of the full force of the water then chased the receding waves.  It ran confidently down the slippery surface and probed like an out-of-control sewing machine among the barnacles until the next wave forced it to retreat. It jabbed at the open barnacles and plucked periwinkles rolled by the waves.  The sandpiper swallowed the shellfish whole; its powerful gizzard cracked them open.

     In winter the Purple Sandpiper is the northern most shorebird.  Some North American birds remain in Newfoundland and Greenland.  They are common as far south as the rocky coasts of New England.  From New Jersey south they mostly inhabit man made jetties. Ponce Inlet is far south of their usual range.