Birds of a feather

Jim Colligan captured a flock of ruddy turnstones yesterday at Reel Point.

According to the Audubon Society, the average ruddy turnstone is “a chunky, short-legged sandpiper, wearing a bright harlequin pattern in summer, dark brown in winter. [It] nests on high arctic tundra of North America and Eurasia, and winters along the coastlines of six continents. In migration it is seen mainly along the coast, although numbers may stop over at favored points inland.”

The little shore bird comes by its unusual name because of its coloring and it turns over stones in search of food.