On April 11, a birder by the name of Sheila Chevarie discovered a Piping Plover resting on the beach at Port Dover, west of the harbour entrance. She posted it to a Facebook group during the morning of April 12, at which point word was made public to the wider birding community. With no pressing things on my agenda that afternoon, I decided to make the drive down to Port Dover to check the bird out. Piping Plovers are one of my favorite species we have nesting here in Ontario and I had never seen one this early in the spring.
As I pulled into the parking lot at the beach, I could already see the plover resting along the shoreline. That was easy!
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| Piping Plover - Port Dover, Norfolk County |
Like most Piping Plovers we see on the Great Lakes, this individual was banded. Piping Plover is an Endangered species in Ontario, largely due to the fact that this species' preferred breeding habitats, sandy beaches, also happen to be quite popular with humans. Groomed beaches lack the necessary cover and hiding places to protect nests and young plovers from predators, while human foot traffic and off-road vehicle use also has a demonstrable impact. Fortunately, Piping Plover numbers appear to be on the rebound in southern Ontario and elsewhere in the Great Lakes, in no small part due to direct conservation actions. In many places where the plovers nest, sections of beach have been cordoned off and a protective cage with gaps large enough for the plovers to traverse are placed over top of the active nest. Just in the last few years Piping Plovers have returned to beaches that they had avoided for years, including Presqu'ile Provincial Park and Hanlan's Beach on the Toronto Islands among others. With the gradual increase in the number of successful broods, perhaps Piping Plovers will continue to expand their range to other beaches in the Great Lakes.
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| Piping Plover - Port Dover, Norfolk County |
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| Piping Plover - Port Dover, Norfolk County |
According to the
Long Point Sightings Board, this individual is the oldest known Piping Plover in the Great Lakes! Appropriately named "Old Man", he was born in 2002 at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in the northeast part of Lake Michigan, making him over 14 years old.
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| Piping Plover - Port Dover, Norfolk County |
Interestingly enough, as I was watching and photographing the bird it became apparent that his gait was a little unusual. A close look with binoculars revealed the root of this problem - he was missing his left foot! It is hard to say when he lost his foot and the leg appeared to be quite swollen despite the wound looking somewhat healed over, so perhaps it was a relatively recent injury. Even with this impediment the plover appeared to be doing fine and was having no trouble hobbling along the shoreline to pick at morsels in the muck and sand.
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| Piping Plover - Port Dover, Norfolk County |
It was a worthwhile few minutes spent with this Piping Plover. I wish him all the best as he continues his 15th spring migration!
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| Piping Plover - Port Dover, Norfolk County |
2 comments:
Wow...that bird is older than me!
Well, that's not hard to do! ;)
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