What Do Shorebirds Eat?

When shorebirds fly North along the Mississippi River Flyway, don't you wonder what they are drilling in the shallows for? Well, food for sure, but whats in the sand for them to eat?

Here is one of the many little morsels the sand pipers and yellowlegs find in the shallow water sediments. This and others like it were found in a gallon jar of river water and shallow sediment I got from the river the other day. The stills are not the best, because he never did stop moving, but the video shows him quite clearly. He's a Bristleworm, and very common in the shallows along the river.

In the video, look for the gills at the tail end, and the connecting veins that go from the gills to the main body artery that travels the length of the worm. A very unique adaptation I have not seen before. All shot with a Canon T1i mounted on a 1980's Nikon Fluophot research microscope using 2x and 4x objective lenses for 20x and 40x magnification.

1. The head end.

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Actually I have wondered what they are pecking at. Thanks for sharing!

Great shots, Mitch. If this is what waders eat, they have to eat a whole lot of it I reckon, to get their bellies filled!

Thanks for looking Crimzon and levina. Levina, this is just one of the things they eat, and there are millions of them in the silt. Also, in the spring, when they are headed north, these things are hatching out in their millions. When they come back through in the fall, the ones that survived, are nice and fat, some getting up to 2 inches long.

2 inches long sounds much better!

Fear Factor stuff.

Thanks Kevan. LOL, not really, he has a typical worm mouth, no teeth.