Piping Plovers (PIPL)

The Island is full of Piping Plovers and we are now ready to share our CONFIRMED PAIRS with you. 

HOW DO WE KNOW A PAIR IS A PAIR ... males perform elaborate flights over breeding territories to advertise their availability to females.

Soon after a female is seen in the area, we will find scrapes (potential nests). A male does all he can do to make the female happy with his work. Some area have had up to twelve scrapes. The male will decorate the scrape with fancy shells, rocks and other substrate.

As seen in the little movie, the male does a courting dance which leave unmistakable tracks in the sand, indicating again, that courting is occurring is underway and a pair is in the territory.

The final act is the TILT Display.  A male may stand in a scrape with a female nearby, lower his head at about a 30° angle, spread wings, and raise his tail, fanning it at a 30° angle. Female crouches and walks underneath the male’s tail. She stands under the male until he walks away and performs another tilt display. Late in courtship, this is when the magic occurs and so will an egg.


Male and Female (Pair 002) as seen right before they they were seen engaging in courting activities back in April.

 

 

 

PIPING PLOVERS

 The Pair 002 male PIPL does a mating / courting dance which is often a sign of a nest attempt coming within the week. The tracks left in the sand from this dance are very easy to find.

The Piping Plover is a threatened and endangered shorebird that inhabits wide, open beaches, alkali flats, and sand flats of North America.

It breeds primarily along the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to eastern Canada and the French Islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, inland along rivers and wetlands of the northern Great Plains from Nebraska to the southern Prairie Provinces, and along portions of the western Great Lakes in the U.S. and western Ontario.

Small plover (17–18 cm long; 43–63 g), one of several in AOU Check-list region showing a single black neck band in alternate plumage. Combination of short and stout bill, pale upperparts, and orange legs important in identification.

Among the three similar plover species, only Piping Plover shows complete white band across upper tail coverts in flight.

Conservation efforts are well organized in breeding areas across North America.  Fewer than 3,000 breeding pairs of Piping Plovers were detected in the U.S. and Canada in 2001.