Spotted Sandpiper - Actitus macularia

I little suspected anything out of the ordinary when I checked my birding-books for the identification of this little bird and its’ mate but when using my Book of North American Birds, Reader’s Digest ©

1990, I was amused when I read a very similar opening phrasing:

                “ – no one suspected anything out of the ordinary in the lives of the little look-alike pairs of spotted sandpipers that nest throughout North America.  Not until 1972, that is, when ornithologist Helen Hays burst into publication with the news that it is the female who returns first to the lakeside nesting areas, the female who fights with other females for a share of the shorefront property, and the female who ruffles her neck feathers and struts about among the males, choosing a mate.  No one knows for certain who prepares the slight scrape in the earth that serves as a nest, or who adds the bit of grass that serves as a lining.  But it is the female who lays the eggs.

                She usually lays four of them, and the male immediately takes over the incubation while the female walks off for another week of romancing with any other available male.  Sometimes it is only a fling, and she returns to her mate to take up her share of the nesting duties, but sometimes this little outing results in a second pair bond.  Then this new pair builds a nest, the female lays four more eggs, the new male takes over the incubation, and the female again walks off for another week of flirtation.  She may do this as many as four or five times before settling down to sharing nesting duties with her last mate – while all the former mates are left to cope with their youngsters on their own.”