Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla)

I recently went out to Royal Roads University to check out some of the forest trails that lie beside the Hatley Park National Historic Site. I've heard there are some huge old growth trees there as much as 500 years old. I had a splendid walk through the forest but did not see the trees.... Anyway, the trail I was on exited from the forest on the northern inland shore of Esquimalt Lagoon. While I often visit this lagoon, which is a bird sanctuary, I have not visited this shore of it before. I was rewarded by sighting two species new to me, the Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla) pictured above and to the left, and some Purple Martins we'll see in a day or two. The Least Sandpiper is the smallest North American shorebird (just a little larger than a sparrow)and is almost indistinguishable from its other slightly larger relatives. Its distinguishing characteristic is its yellowish legs. The otherwise unremarkable photo to the left does have the virtue of clearly showing the yellowish legs on a couple of the birds.