Graceful and unusual, the Upland Sandpiper has been fondly described as a “pinhead,” because its moderately-sized body and long neck would seem to require a bird with a larger topper. But that’s not this sandpiper’s only oddity. On its grassland breeding grounds, the Upland Sandpiper lets out a classic human “wolf whistle” in flight.

Upland Sandpiper populations have greatly diminished in the Northeast. The Second Vermont Breeding Bird Atlas showed an 85% decline in the number of occupied areas. They likely have been the victims of loss and fragmentation of grassland habitat, as well as earlier and more frequent haying. They are now listed as endangered in Vermont.

Prior to 1989, no systematic survey had been conducted on the abundance of Upland Sandpiper in Vermont, although distribution of the species was documented during the first Vermont Breeding Bird Atlas Project . Concerns over the apparent decline of Upland Sandpipers in Vermont prompted dedicated surveys for this species from 1989 to 1992, which documented increases in adult numbers and the number of nesting sites. The highest counts during this period were 126 individuals located at 47 sites with a suspected stable population of 80 to 100 pairs. However, these increases were attributed to refinement of survey techniques, as opposed to actual population increases.

Another set of surveys was conducted in 1998 and 1999. The 1998 survey showed a 60% decline in numbers (50 individuals at 22 sites). The 1999 survey showed a decline of 78% with only 28 individuals at 15 sites. Subsequent, but more limited, surveys from 2000 to 2002 showed findings similar to 1999.

We know all this because several years ago a longtime friend of VCE, Judy Peterson, generously provided funding to VCE to rescue (i.e. digitize, compile, summarize, and share) paper reports, field data forms, and maps containing data on the roadside surveys she and others had conducted in Vermont of Upland Sandpipers from 1991 to 1993 and again from 1998 to 1999. As a volunteer with our researchers in the 1990s, then at the Vermont Institute of Natural Science, Judy was lead author of two important reports on the status of USPA in Vermont. With her financial support, we were able to examine and digitize these papers—which had been carefully filed in a cabinet for over 30 years—to capture all survey site results (both present and absent). These data, along with other available UPSA data spanning the years 1891 to 2001, are now freely available through the Vermont Atlas of Life.You can find the dataset on the Vermont Atlas of Life IPT server for downloading and use, additional point count surveys of grassland from 1991 and 1993 , as well as the following reports:

  • Rimmer, Christopher, Christopher Fichtel (1989). A Breeding Season Status Survey of the Upland Sandpiper in Vermont. Unpub. report. ( PDF )
  • Peterson, Judith, Christopher Rimmer, Christopher Fichtel (1999). A Comparison of Two Population Monitoring Techniques for Upland Sandpipers in Vermont. Unpub. report ( PDF )
  • Peterson, Judith (1999). The Upland Sandpiper in Vermont, 1998-1999: A Declining Species. Unpub. report. ( PDF )