Purple

One of two Purple Sandpipers (Calidris maritima) spotted along the breakwater rocks of the Belt Parkway walkway from 69th to the Narrows the other day. Are these toes longer than your typical shorebird, to grasp ahold of the slick wet rocks that are their preferred habitat in winter?By now you may be asking what’s so purple about this bird? Not so much, actually. The first picture maybe as purple as they get. But this feather pattern is exquisite.This one had obviously been there a while.