A member of the Snipe Family feeding on the wintry beach seems as much out of place as a Hummingbird and the observer is apt to think that injury has interrupted his southern journey. I have seen PURPLE SANDPIPERS on the rocky Maine coast, searching seaweed for food, apparently indifferent to cold.
Altho nowhere common, these hardy birds are not infrequent visitors to Atlantic shores as far south as Long Island and may be less rare than supposed, for few observers brave the windswept shores in Winter.
They nest on the high hills of Iceland, the Faeroes and Spitzbergen but American sites are closer to the sea.
Northeastern North America.