ENDANGERED PIPING PLOVER NEEDS OUR HELP

Image: Piping Plover

Contributed by Members of MNR's Piping Plover Recovery Team

Visitors to the sand or gravel beaches of many of our Great Lakes provincial parks can help with recovery efforts for the tiny endangered Piping Plover.

While a small remnant population of Piping Plovers continues to breed at Lake of the Woods, no birds have nested on southern Ontario's Great Lakes shores since 1977. Single birds, however, have been seen in recent years on beaches along Ontario's Great Lakes shorelines, at locations including Sandbanks and Presqu'ile provincial parks, and Long Point, leading to the hope that nesting plovers may once again occur in their former territories.

Distinguishing Marks and Confusing Cousins
The Piping Plover is difficult to spot on the beach since it blends in easily with its surroundings. It has a pale, sand-coloured back and head with a white breast and rump. The legs are orange and the bill is orange with a black tip. Distinguishing marks include a single black breast band and a single black band on the forehead.

Two similar shorebirds, the Semipalmated Plover and the Killdeer, resemble the Piping Plover. The Piping Plover has a narrower, often incomplete breast band and the colour of its back is much lighter than the back of the Semipalmated Plover. The "rule of thumb" is: if the colour of the bird's back is the colour of dry sand, it will be a Piping Plover; if the colour is that of wet sand, it will be a Semipalmated Plover. Killdeers are larger, darker and have two black breast bands. The Piping Plover's continuous aerial "piping" call is also distinctive.

Image: Semipalmated Plover

Distribution
Piping Plovers nest in three distinct locations: the Atlantic coast, the Great Lakes (Michigan and Superior), and the Northern Great Plains. In Ontario, a few Piping Plovers nest at Lake of the Woods near the Ontario-Minnesota border. These birds are part of the Great Plains population that extends from Lake of the Woods westward across the Canadian prairies and south to Colorado in the U.S.

Although Piping Plovers from the Great Lakes population previously nested in Ontario, they currently breed only in northern Michigan on the beaches of Lakes Superior and Michigan. Prior to the 1970s, Great Lakes Piping Plovers were widespread in Ontario, nesting along sandy shores of Lakes Erie, Ontario, Huron and Superior.

Delicate Bird - Delicate Nesting Sites
Breeding pairs of Piping Plovers select nest sites on wide beaches, which can include a sand dune backshore area. Nests are typically situated between the dunes and the water on unvegetated or sparsely vegetated sand and gravel.

Dune habitats used for breeding by Piping Plovers also host rare vegetation communities and other species at risk, such as the endangered Pitcher's Thistle, the threatened Eastern Hognose Snake, and the provincially rare Marram Grass and Green Milkweed.

There are several dune systems around Ontario's Great Lakes where Piping Plovers nested in the past or that provide suitable habitat. These dynamic, fragile ecosystems, however, are also threatened by human activities and need protection, both for the return of the Piping Plover, as well as for the rare species and communities that continue to exist there.

Nesting Habits
Piping Plovers arrive on their breeding grounds in late April. Females lay up to four cream coloured, dark speckled eggs. Adults share in sitting on the nest, and they will both distract and lead a predator or intruder away from the nest by pretending to have a broken wing, crying and appearing to struggle.

When the chicks hatch they are able to leave the nest within a few hours and feed in shallow pools, but they cannot fly for several weeks. Adults and young fly south in late July and early August and winter in the Gulf of Mexico. Nests and young plovers are vulnerable to predators and interference from humans during this period, so nest fences are sometimes used to protect them. Also, some parts of a beach may be closed to visitors.

Your Help is Needed
Increasing recreational use, cottages, and residential development of beaches is considered a primary cause of the decline of the Piping Plover. Human activity can result in disturbance to birds, trampling or crushing of eggs and young, and attraction of predators due to garbage left on the beach.

You can help encourage the return of these charming little birds to Ontario's beaches by controlling pets on or near beaches, and preventing the buildup of garbage that attracts predators. More importantly, if you spot a Piping Plover, please contact a local Ministry of Natural Resources or Provincial Park office with details of where and when you saw the bird.

And, please, accept our thanks for your help in returning this endangered little shore bird to Ontario's beaches.

Image: Killdeer

Species at Risk --
act today so they have tomorrow!

Contributed by Piping Plover Recovery Team members Allen Woodliffe (MNR Chatham), Leo Heyens (MNR Kenora), and Karen Hartley and Barbara Selkirk of Ontario Parks' Species at Risk Section.

Images Courtesy of: Leo Heyens and Allen Woodliffe.