Rewarded with a Whimbrel

No plovers. I visited the Clandeboye Bay Special Conservation Area on Lake Manitoba for the third time this spring. Only a decade ago, it was a nesting area where you were nearly guaranteed to see two or three pair of piping plover. Today I was shutout yet again. Killdeers feigned broken wings, spotted sandpipers teetered along the shore and sanderlings raced along the beach trying not to get their feet wet. Pelicans glided overhead, western grebes danced on the water and a nighthawk and Franklin's gulls twisted and turned as they gobbled up newly hatched insects, but the sweet, plaintive 'peep-lo' call of the piping plover was missing. The beach was not complete without it. However, not all was despair. As I scoured the SCA for plovers, I noticed a large sandpiper standing on a piece of washed up driftwood. When I placed my binos on it, I was startled to see the long downcurved bill, diagnostic of the Whimbrel. This was only my second sighting of this tundra nester, ever. As I left the SCA, I could not help think what of the Whimbrel? Is it the next shorebird to be placed on our list of threatened and endangered bird species? I hope not.

Ken Porteous

2010 Piping Plover Guardian

Piping Plover Season has Begun!

The plovers have returned to Grand Beach and we have had a sighting of a lone bird near Gimli! We have found our first nest at Grand Beach which means that by this time next month we will have our first piping plover chicks running on the beach.

If you are interested in volunteering, please call us at 204-945-6817!

Ken Porteous
2010 Piping Plover Guardian

Welcome for 2010

Piping Plovers return in April/May to nest along the beaches on Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba and every year, the Manitoba Piping Plover Guardian Program kicks into high gear to protect the plovers, their nests, eggs and chicks from a variety of threats including human activity, off-leash dogs, all-terrain vehicles, predation by gulls, crows and a variety of smaller mammals. If you wish to help, the Program's contact information is on the left.