Piping Plover

Charadrius melodus melodus

The endangered piping plover is extremely sensitive to disturbances on the beaches where it nests. As a result, it is not uncommon for adults to abandon viable nests. Recovery plans for this species call for captive rearing of chicks from abandoned eggs in order to augment the slowly-recovering population. While this has been done successfully with the circumcintus subspecies which lives in the Great Lakes and Prairie regions, captive-rearing along the ocean shore presents unique challenges. Until now, successful captive rearing has not been performed with the Atlantic coast melodus population.

In 2011, Wildlife Preservation Canada began working with Parks Canada and the Magnetic Hill Zoo in Moncton, New Brunswick, to develop best-practice captive-rearing techniques that take into account the different natural food sources of ocean shore plovers, limited access to fresh water, and the need for flight pens which can withstand ocean tides and storm swells. Our most recent Canada’s New Noah graduate, Kendra MacDonald, was this year’s project coordinator responsible for updating the egg collection and captive rearing and release protocols, training zoo staff, caring for the chicks in the release pens and monitoring them post release. Parks Canada staff salvage eggs abandoned on national park beaches and transport the eggs to the zoo, which has the facilities to artificially incubate the eggs and rear the hatchlings (see photo, middle right). Once the chicks are old enough, they are transported back to their natal beach, where they are placed in a flight pen, which provides the necessary protection as they acclimatize themselves to their surroundings and learn to find food and water. Once they exhibit strong foraging and flight skills, they are released into the wild.

In 2011, five plovers raised from abandoned eggs were released into the wild. Post-release monitoring indicated they all survived to migrate along with their wild-hatched counterparts. From these humble beginnings we hope to improve our rearing techniques to ensure that once released into the wild, piping plovers have the best chances for survival.

Description

The piping plover is a small, migratory shorebird with an adult weight of between 43-63g, and measuring up to 18 cm. These tiny birds rely on their cryptic plumage for survival. Their pale brown to grey dorsal and white ventral feathers make them nearly impossible to spot in certain surroundings. They are also characterized by a short stubby orange beak with black tip and orange legs. During the breeding season adult piping plovers (melodus) will have a black band above its white forehead and a black collar band around its neck which may be incomplete. They can be easily mistaken with the semipalmated plover (Charadrius semipalmatas) which lacks a white rump patch and has a more pronounced black forehead band and darker brown body. Both sexes look similar during the breeding season. The plover’s sandy colouration provides excellent camouflage as it forages for insects and small crustaceans along the water’s edge and in small beach pools. Piping plovers are characterized by their high-pitched “pipe” call.

Piping plovers begin arriving at their Canadian breeding grounds at the end of March, with mostly all nest initiations completed by mid-July. They lay up to four sand-coloured eggs directly on the beach in shallow depressions above the normal high-water mark. Both parents participate in the incubation of eggs and care of nestlings, though the chicks are precocial and will leave the nest and forage for food within a few hours of hatching. Young may begin hatching as early as mid-May or early July with migration back to wintering grounds beginning in mid-July. Eggs will hatch between 26-28 days after being laid and chicks will fledge within 28 days of hatching.

Habitat

Piping plovers require wide beaches that have some gravel or cobble cover for nesting, little vegetative cover and a large distance from nest site to treeline.

Distribution and Population Size

Breeding and nesting of the melodus subspecies occurs along the Atlantic coast from Newfoundland to South Carolina. Nesting within Canada occurs along the cost of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and on the Magdalen Islands of Quebec; with wintering grounds ranging from south Atlantic United States to the Caribbean.

In 2011 an international census was completed to determine population numbers in Canada’s Atlantic provinces and France’s St. Pierre and Miquelon Islands. In total, 408 adults were counted during the two week census. The total number of adults counted in the 2011 breeding season was 446 adults consisting of 209 pairs and 29 singles.

Threats to Survival

Loss or degradation of habitat resulting from the recreational use of beaches is the primary threat to plovers throughout their range. Moreover, human disturbance such as All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) and dogs on the beach often destroy plover nests or cause the parents to abandon otherwise healthy eggs. In addition, garbage left behind has resulted in increases in the number of predators such as the red fox, raccoon, ring-billed gull and crow, and nest depredation is now one of the biggest threats to plovers on their breeding grounds.

Species Recovery

Piping plovers (Charadrius melodus) were first classified as endangered by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) in 1985. Initially it was thought that the species was a single unit, however, upon re-examination of population dynamics in 2001 COSEWIC determined there were two subspecies: Charadrius melodus circumcintus for the Great Lakes and prairie populations, and Charadrius melodus melodus for the Atlantic coastal population.

Government agencies, local conservation groups and volunteers work extremely hard every year to monitor known plover nesting beaches for the arrival of adult birds in April and May and throughout the breeding season. This important work provides information on how many nests were laid, and how many eggs hatched and chicks fledged by the end of the season. When nests are discovered, depending on where it is located, the area is either closed to the public, or symbolic fencing, consisting of signs explaining the area of closure to protect birds from disturbance, is erected around the nest. In some instances predator exclosures are put up around and over the nest to protect the nest from being depredated.

Over the past two decades local conservation groups and government agencies in Atlantic Canada have also invested countless hours and resources to develop volunteer stewardship programs to protect plover nesting habitat. A great deal of this work has focused on public outreach to educate beach goers about the negative impact of their presence in areas where plover nests are present.

Since 2009, remote cameras have been strategically placed to survey nests through out the National Parks in Atlantic Canada. These cameras record the nest 24 hours a day throughout the entire breeding season until the chicks hatch. Researchers are especially interested in predator identification and behaviour. This research will also help determine if the current design of predator exclosures is ideal, or if any changes need to be made to improve the design. This study will also give us information on whether predators are attracted to the exclosures and if there is stalking behaviour related to with their use.

In 2010 a two-year pilot project was initiated to develop captive rearing protocols from abandoned eggs for the melodus subspecies. When nests are abandoned eggs are collected and taken to the Magnetic Hill Zoo for incubation and then the fledged young are released. This project will increase the available conservation tools in the case of any other further decrease in plover numbers, particularly in the event of a large scale catastrophic event (e.g. oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico)