Contributed by Nongame Bird Biologist Lauren Dinan
More on Piping Plovers! Last week I blogged about our Piping Plover banding program in which we work in cooperation with the Tern and Plover Conservation Partnership at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln School of Natural Resources. A great part of this banding program is being able to watch our birds as they grow from little fluffballs, to awkward teenagers, and to adults that travel across the United States.
The Piping Plover pictured above was banded as a one-day-old chick on 7 June 2013 at a lakeshore housing development near North Bend, Dodge County, Nebraska. This bird received a metal band on its upper left leg, yellow over green bands on its lower left leg, a light blue flag on it upper right leg, and black over red color bands on its lower right leg. This plover was resighted as a 13-day-old chick on 19 June 2013, but we were unsure whether it successfully fledged, if it survived migration, and, if it did survive, where this plover is spending the winter.
These questions were answered just a day ago when Danny Sauvageau, who you may recognize from last week’s post, photographed this plover on Caladesi Island near Tampa, Florida, approximately 1,300 miles away from its home in Nebraska.
Thanks to Danny Sauvageau for permission to use his great photograph. For more information on the Tern and Plover Conservation Partnership and the work being done for Piping Plovers and Interior Least Terns nesting in Nebraska please visit their website at http://ternandplover.unl.edu/.