Twee and Pip
Illustrations Coming Soon
Twee and Pip are best friends. Twee is a Least sandpiper. Pip is a Western sandpiper. They buddy around together every summer. Twee is slightly smaller than Pip, but just as strong. And Pip is way strong. He and his family are migrating birds who travel long distances.
Twee’s family live at the marsh year-round. During the summer, though, the marsh is crowded when other kinds of migrants come to visit.
Hundreds of other sandpipers just like Twee and Pip gather on the shore to feast. Twee and Pip poke, poke, poke with Pipe-like bills into the wet sand to find and eat tiny delicious mollusks by the score. They skitter along near the water’s edge grazing and searching.
Pip liked to capture a small beach worm, hold it up, say, “Lookey, lookey, lookey.” And toss back his head to let the worm slide down his throat. It made Twee laugh. By the way, you haven’t lived until you hear a bird laugh.
Many shorebirds like to spend their summers at Arcata Marsh, a resting place between their breeding range and wintering range. The marsh is a fine place to fatten up.
The party begins the moment the migrants arrive! Commons, Westerns, Black-necked Stilts, Short-billed Dowitchers and more. It is fun to see how each bird looks so different.
Crowns, plumage, size, even their legs are different. One family has a large white spot between their bills and eyes. Another has stripes along their wings, and another has shining green backs.
Each bird brings exciting stories of the world beyond the marsh. It is like a new blockbuster coming to town, but of course, birds don’t go to the movies.
Birds would gather around Pip and urge him to tell stories because he is so entertaining. “We go to Alaska in the spring to breed,” Pip begins. “We’re on the beach, see, and this big King Salmon sneaks up and splashes us. That makes us twee-twee-twee so loud it scares a fisherman and he drops his pole right in the water.”
The birds agree, fish and fishermen can be an endless source of merriment. The natives show the migrants around the marsh and boast about the abundant insect population.
There are many farms nearby and it is a sandpiper’s job to help the farmers control the insects. Summer meals are especially filling.
Sometimes when the birds are looking for insects they fly in large formations. Large wisps of peeps launch into the air, flinging themselves into acrobatic flights of fancy.
Often humans stand on the shore taking pictures of the birds’ remarkable flying coordination.
Twee and Pip fly together in the formation. Twee communicates particular moves to Pip so that he can learn the ways of the Westerns. With stiff wingbeats, alternating with short glides on down-turned wings, the birds skim over the water. Exhilarating!
At the end of the summer, the migrating birds got ready to continue on their journey to the Baja wintering range. They thank their hosts for their hospitality and say goodbye to their Arcata friends. Pip says to Twee, “Hasta luego, amigo.”