And Then There Were Seven

I drove to Southwestern Manitoba on Friday, June 15, to check on the plover nest I had exclosed 15 days earlier. And this story just gets more bizarre. Yesterday morning, June 16, a friend helped me to the island in his canoe. It had rained all night and the morning was cool and blustery. Once on the island, both adult piping plovers greeted me immediately. Judging from the picture below you'd think I was on one of the 'Big' lakes where they have traditionally nested.

Female & male piping plover - photo by K. Porteous

However, that's not the case here. These birds have nested on an island created in a farmer's flooded field. The day before was idyllic with a 'Simpsons' sky.

Plover Island in Southwestern Manitoba - photo by K. Porteous

Once on the island I made a beeline to the nest so as not to disturb them and their shorebird neighbours, the American avocets, for any longer then required. Once again, I was slack-jawed when I saw the nest. It now had seven eggs in it! And the nest is like no other piping plover nest I have ever seen. It is surrounded by vegetation and the scrape is not lined with pebbles. For that matter, there is no sand/gravel substrate at all, just wet ground.

A friend and colleague of mine in Saskatchewan and an expert on shorebirds provided me with a couple of plausible explanations for why seven eggs and not the normal clutch of four. It is possible that two females are laying in the same scrape. Although I was only on the island for five minutes, I did make a thorough check of the shoreline looking for a second female, but only saw the pair. A second possibility is that the female laid a complete clutch, but one or two were predated and then she laid another lot of four in the same nest. However, as my friend said in her email, "It would have to be an awfully stupid bird!" But as I said earlier, this whole situation has been bizarre from the outset. We haven't had a nest reported in this area in years, the nest is not your typical piping plover nest and it has seven eggs in it. Crazy!

By my calculations, the nest should hatch out some time during the last week of June. Stay tuned.

Exclosure over nest, note veg - photo by K. Porteous

Count them, seven eggs!

Note, no scrape, wet ground - photo by K. Porteous

KP

The Season to Date

It is with a heavy heart that I must inform everyone that for the first time that I can remember, we have not found a nest on the East side of Lake Winnipeg and in particular Grand Beach. We have observed single birds on four different occasions at four different locations; Grand Marais, Beaconia Beach, Hillside Beach and parking lot #5 at Grand Beach. Are they four different birds or is it the same bird searching different areas for a mate? We'll never no for sure as none of the birds observed to date has been banded.

However, with the discouraging news comes some positive news. A nest was found and confirmed on Tuesday located in Southwestern Manitoba; the first such observation in many years. It is located on a small island shared with about 40 American avocets in a flooded farmer's field. Go figure. I was able to place an exclosure over the nest today to help protect the eggs from marauding raccoons, foxes and crows.

When placing the exclosure, we always want to take as little time as possible, so as not to disturb the birds for an extended period of time. However, I was taken aback for a short time when I discovered six eggs in the nest and the top third of a shell from a seventh egg. Four eggs is a normal clutch size. Don't ask me, "What's with that?" because I don't know. You will note in the photograph below that the top two eggs are slightly discoloured and darker that the other four. I will endeavour to find out what the possibilities are from a colleague in Saskatchewan and will report back. Although the nest looked a little in disarray, when I left this afternoon, both adult birds were trading off to incubate the eggs.

So there you have it; nothing at Grand Beach, but a nest in an area that's not seen plover activity in sometime. We will continue to monitor the situation on the East side of Lake Winnipeg and will be paying particular attention to the nest with six eggs. Stay tuned.

KP

Piping Plover nest with 6 eggs - Photo by Ken Porteous