Welcome to the New England Aquarium's shorebird exhibit "In on the Wind: shorebirds and the Boston Harbor Islands".
You're about to enter a unique exhibit featuring many different species of fish, plants, invertebrates and birds all living together. Peer through the mesh and you will see, and hear, six species of shorebirds. A common tern, two sanderlings, a dunlin, a virginia rail, two semipalmated plovers and two threatened piping plovers can be seen foraging for food amongst the rocks, marsh grass and driftwood and sometimes even in the saltwater pool itself! Press play and watch as our sanderlings catch crickets!
Look through the glass into the pool and you will see a large school of mummichogs, silversides and sheepshead minnows darting in and out of the kelp and irish moss. Bright orange finger sponges grow off the sandy bottom where four winter flounder hide with only their eyes peering out. Hermit crabs check out empty periwinkle shells looking for a housing upgrade. If you're lucky you'll see one of the elusive decorator crabs as he makes his way around the tank "decorating" himself by gluing sponges, pebbles and bits of seaweed to his shell. Play the video below and watch as the tataug comes out of the seaweed on the left, takes a bite out of the sponge, and returns to his lair.
Please come and visit again and you will have the chance to meet our birds one individual at a time, hear their mating calls, see where they nest and watch as they migrate through the harbor in the thousands! Thank you for visiting!
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Kate
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Labels: feeding, Kate, piping plover, sanderling, sheepshead minnows, tautog, Video
Our exhibit holds two sanderlings, a male and a female. The male comes to us from a former exhibit and can fly very well. The female was found in the winter of 2007 on a beach on Long Island. Vets in New York discovered severe fractures of her radius and ulna and successfully rehabilitated her, although she can not fly. She therefore has found a permanent home in our exhibit. You can tell her apart from the male because of her slightly droopy right wing. They are seen here in their winter plumage. They're currently in the midst of their spring molt so check back in a few months to see them in their full breeding plumage.
