Where are the Chicks?

No, not those kind of chicks, I'm talking piping plovers. Last summer eight chicks were fitted with leg bands. This would allow us to identify them on their wintering grounds along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico or upon their return this spring. We banded five chicks at Grand Beach and three at Gimli Beach. I had the privilege of assisting Canadian Wildlife Service staff with this task. All eight of these chicks eventually fledged. That means the birds were able to fly on their own and migrate south for the winter. So after six weeks of surveying every beach on the west side of Lake Winnipeg and the east side of Lake Manitoba, where are they? Research has shown that first year adults do not normally return to the place where they hatched. However, they do return to the general area. That is, birds that hatched at Grand Beach may not return there in their first year, but they could be expected to show up at a nearby location like Hillside Beach or Elk Island. But so far, we have not received a report of these birds showing up anywhere from the Great Lakes west to Alberta. So where are they? What happened to our chicks?

KP

A Bright Spot on an Ugly Day

The wind is howling. The rain is coming down sideways. I'm wet, I'm cold, I'm down. We haven't seen a piping plover on the west side of Lake Winnipeg in a week. I follow the tracks of a 4x4 half-ton truck that someone the previous night had decided to take on a joy-ride down Gimli beach. Then, when I least expect it, there it is, like a spotlight on a movie star in Hollywood, a plover. The colours vibrant, the orange bill and legs shining like the chrome on a classic car. I watch, transfixed, as it scurries along the sand, nestles down in a scrape, jumps up, runs some more, nestles down, eyes me and then ignores me. I am elated. Suddenly, I'm no longer cold, the rain feels like a light sprinkling. But where is the female? After all, it takes two to tango.

KP

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