Surprise! This is a Non-breeding Red Knot. (The Red Knot is a type of sandpiper.)
A Breeding Red Knot has the red (cinnamon) color below and on its side. It is a migratory bird traveling long distances: from High Artic areas to South America, Africa, and Australia. Red Knots in North America are in decline because of loss of habitat - a preferred food, the eggs of Horseshoe Crabs, have declined due to overharvesting. Seeing them is such a wonderful treat.
Red Knots also eat mollusks. It swallows the mollusk whole! The mollusk is crushed in the muscular part of the stomach called a gizzard.
I have misidentified Red Knots as Western Willets. (Willets are also a type of Sandpiper.)
But, here is some help from Tim Kalback who is an administrator of "What's this bird?" Tim said this when I posted these two photos asking if they were Willets. "All Red Knots! Willets are much larger, longer-legged, with no greenish color to the legs and bold black and white wing pattern that would be evident in the bird with shaking off."
So these are also Red Knots.
Okay, this is now clear.
