UPDATED, edited, and corrected:
An astute eye and excellent photographer, Deb Allen has let me know that this is actually a Black-bellied Plover (Pluvialis squatarola). The bird is sporting non-breeding plumage, hence the lack of the tell-tale black belly (which, to make things interesting, the American Golden Plover also sports). Sorry about the error, indignor quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus. I am always open to corrections.
Semipalmated Sandpiper. Not to be confused with the Semipalmated Plover (Charadrius semipalmatus). “Semipalmated” means it has short webs between its toes: “palmated” meaning webbed. A good reminder that many of these names were based on dead specimens in hand, where you can see this kind of detail.
Three were working the wrack-line at Fort Tilden. The birds are in-between their breeding grounds in the Arctic and their non-breeding grounds along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of South America.
Backyard and Beyond 
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