Sanderlings and Slipper Shells at Third Beach Middletown Rhode Island

In an earlier blog I talked about the dunlins and the gulls at Gooseberry feeding on slipper shells. I was down at Third Beach in Middletown Rhode Island where the Sanderlings were running up and down the beach feeding. I sat down on the sand with my tripod between my legs and photographed the activities of the Sanderlings. When a sanderling would find a slipper shell with the gastropod inside it, it would grab it and start running to a clear area on this beach so it could start eating, a number of times another sanderling would start chasing the sanderling that had the slipper shell to try to get it away from so it could eat the meat itself. One of the series of events that I documented was when one sanderling was starting to eat from the slipper shell and another sanderling was just watching, a third sanderling started running up, then at one point all three were feeding from the slipper shell until finally the last sanderling to arrive drove all the other sanderlings away. Such as the events that go on all the time, you just have to observe and be patient.

Again, the slipper shells are furnishing the protein nourishment that these little birds need to help them survive.

My only problem that I had was other people.. I am sitting on the beach with a tripod and a big lens photographing when a couple that was walking down the beach toward me, the gentleman passed it back to me, but the woman walked almost on the shoreline and cause the sanderlings to fly. Thank God, they came back again. Then a father with two young sons allowed his sons to chase the birds that were right in front of me. Again the birds flew but came back after the people left. Some people have no manners!