[NatureNS] Color-banded Piping Plovers from The Bahamas

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Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2010 11:00:43 -0400
From: BSC NS Plovers <nsplovers@gmail.com>
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Hi all,

Brain, thanks for sharing this announcement.  This is a really cool
project being led by a researcher with Environment Canada, Cheri
Gratto-Trevor.  We know that significant numbers of plovers spend the
winter in the Bahamas, but we don't know where these birds breed.  So,
our observations are very important in helping answer this question!

Cheri sent me some laminated cards to share with our volunteers, which
show a photo of a colour-banded plover and instructions for reading
bands.  Please contact me if you'd like one.

Plovers will be returning to Nova Scotia soon and may already be on a
few beaches.  During April-May, plovers establish territories and find
a mate and, if we continue to have a warm spring, plovers may start
laying eggs (between the dunes and high tide mark) toward the end of
April.

To avoid disturbing plovers during this sensitive period, it's always
best to stay on the wet sand close to the water's edge.  Getting a
good look at bands to determine colours can be challenging and may
require a few minutes of observation, but please try to reduce the
amount of time you spend watching a plover in case your presence is
keeping it from returning to it's eggs or chicks.  Many of you already
know this, but we can all do our part to remind others who are less
familiar with plovers.

I encourage everyone to carefully check the legs of plovers for bands
and report observations to Cheri and NatureNS.  I'll do my best to
send out a few updates during the breeding season to keep you all
posted on plovers in NS - bands or no bands!  Feel free to contact me
anytime, too.

All the best,
Sue Abbott

-- 
NS Piping Plover Conservation Program
Learn more: www.bsc-eoc.org/volunteer/nsplover/

Bird Studies Canada
c/o 45 Alderney Dr., 16th floor
Dartmouth, NS B2Y 2N6

(902) 426-4055

On 3/31/10, Brian Dalzell <aythya@nb.sympatico.ca> wrote:
> During Jan-Feb 2010 fifty-seven Piping Plovers were color marked on three
> islands in The Bahamas. Kindly keep an eye out for these birds during the
> spring and fall migration and  the breeding season. Sightings,including
> those about which the observer is uncertain (note: there a very few
> color-banded Piping Plovers in the Atlantic population so one with a black
> flag is likely from The Bahamas), may be reported per the instructions
> below.
>
> Additional information and pictures of The Bahamas Plovers may be found in
> the Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatory at First Landing blog of February
> 24, 2010 by visiting www.cvwo.org .
>
>
> PIPING PLOVERS COLOR-MARKED IN THE BAHAMAS – In an effort to determine where
> Piping Plovers wintering in The Bahamas are staging during migration, and
> breeding, 57 birds were uniquely color-marked this winter in The Bahamas for
> Environment Canada by Sidney Maddock and Peter Doherty, with help from The
> Bahamas National Trust.  Each bird has a black flag (band with a tab
> sticking out slightly) on the upper left leg, nothing on the upper right, a
> single color band on one lower leg, and two color bands (which can be the
> same color on top of each other) on the other lower leg.  Colors used
> included: red, orange, yellow, white, light green, dark green, dark blue,
> and black.
>
> Please report all sightings to CHERI GRATTO-TREVOR, Prairie and
> Northern Wildlife Research Centre, Environment Canada, 115 Perimeter Road,
> Saskatoon, SK S7N 0X4 Canada (EM: cheri.gratto-trevor@ec.gc.ca), noting the
> color and location of each band on the bird, and location and behaviour of
> the bird (on nest or brood, foraging at migratory stop-over, etc.), as well
> as presumed sex of the bird, if possible.  Thanks for any assistance!
>
> P.S.  Northbound Piping Plovers from the Bahamas have already been reported
> from Florida, South Caroline, Connecticut and Massachusetts.  Atlantic
> provinces next?
>

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