The Wood Sandpiper, elegant northern traveler in the Var marshes
Breeding across Scandinavian bogs and Siberian taiga, the Wood Sandpiper (Tringa glareola) stages each August across Var saltpans and freshwater pools. Delicately spangled with gold and white stars, it wades with buoyant poise.
My field observations in the Var — sites, months and context
✓ Aug 2026 Synthesis (2 records)Photographed wading in shallow waters and vegetated edges at Les Pesquiers and Les Vieux Salins, probing soft silt among glasswort shoots.
Commented in situ photo gallery
1 telephoto photographs taken in the Var department (Rule 11)
Recognizing the species on my photos — visible details
Dark brown upperparts heavily spotted with creamy white spangles, prominent pale supercilium extending behind the eye, yellowish-green legs and a slender straight bill.
Muddy edges of saltpans, shallow freshwater marshes, wet ditches and flooded sansouïres.
Aquatic insect larvae, midge larvae, small water beetles, tiny snails and brine crustaceans.
Photographing the species: field experience
Its graceful gait and pristine reflection across mirror-still morning water provide classic shorebird photo opportunities.
- •It completes epic nonstop flights from Arctic wetlands all the way to sub-Saharan African floodplains.
- •Compared to the darker Green Sandpiper, the Wood Sandpiper displays much paler, densely starred plumage.
- •Its flight call is an upbeat, musical trisyllabic whistle: 'chiff-chiff-chiff'.
