On Sooty Oystercatchers

Known to some as the blackbirds of the ocean shore
They live near where the big waves toss and roar
With long orange colored bills and orange colored feet
Crow sized birds of beaches where the land and ocean meet
Seldom sketched or written about strangers to fame
Sooty oystercatchers is their common name
With their long bills they take the flesh from shells washed in by the tide
And amongst the kelp on beaches where invertebrates and sea lice hide
With flocks of gulls one them does often see
Searching for tiny life forms washed in by the sea
In large flocks they are not known to abound
In small islands they lay their blotched eggs in a scrape on the ground
Dark birds with orange bills and orange feet and orange ring around either eye
They pipe softly as above the waves they do fly.