East-side 5 West-side 0

No, this is not the score in some obscure hockey league play-off game. Unfortunately, it paints a rather bleak picture of the number of piping plovers identified so far around the province. On the East-side of Lake Winnipeg my colleagues have seen four plovers at Grand Beach and one at Hillside Beach. On the other side of the 'Big" lake I have been skunked and that goes for the East-side of Lake Manitoba too. I have surveyed Gimli Beach on several occasions, Willow Island a couple of times and Dunnottar Beach, Winnipeg Beach and the Riverton Sandy Bar once each. On Lake Manitoba, I have visited north to south, Watchorn Beach, Lundar Beach, Twin Lakes Beach, St. Ambroise Beach and I was stymied trying to reach the Clandeboye Bay Special Conservation Area due to high water. Of course high water on Manitoba's 'Great Lakes' has plagued us for a number of years now. It shrinks the available habitat for plovers and they either move on or nest unsuccessfully. However, the numbers are not all doom and gloom. Of the five plovers identified on the East-side, four of them were banded birds. We are still determining where and when they were banded. More on that subject to come.

KP