Tag Archives: Piping Plover

Contributed by Dr. Mary Bomberger Brown “In the eye of a hurricane, there is quiet for just a moment” –from Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda What’s a Piping Plover to do? After a busy summer nesting in Nebraska you head off to the sunny beaches of south Texas or Florida, or maybe a nice Caribbean Island, for some well-deserved R & R and what happens? You get walloped by not one, but two hurricanes (Harvey in Texas and Irma in Florida …

Contributed by Lauren Dinan, Nongame Bird Biologist Erwin has once again safely made it back to Florida and is set to spend her sixth winter in a row in the sunshine state!  As many of you know, Erwin is our famous Piping Plover that hatched at a lakeshore housing development in Dodge County, Nebraska, in June 2011.  Over the last five years we have been tracking Erwin’s movements across the United States and she has successfully made the 1,000 plus …

Contributed by Lauren Dinan, Nongame Bird Biologist Last week I posted a story about a Piping Plover that successfully completed its first migration and arrived safely along the U.S. Gulf Coast only two months after hatching in Nebraska. Last week’s story highlighted how remarkable it is that these birds travel over 900 miles or more only a couple short months after hatching. This post is about the perils of migration and, unfortunately, the story does not end happily-ever-after. The reality is …

Contributed by Lauren Dinan, Nongame Bird Biologist Erwin has been spotted again!  As many of you know, Erwin is our famous Piping Plover that hatched at a lakeshore housing development in Dodge County, Nebraska, in June 2011.  Over the last 4½ years we have been tracking Erwin’s movements across the United States.  We are able to track Erwin’s movements because we placed colored leg bands on Erwin when she was a 3-day old chick back in 2011.  We have tracked …

Contributed by Lauren Dinan, Nongame Bird Biologist A couple weeks ago we were made aware that one of our Nebraska Piping Plovers was found entangled in some fishing line on the Texas coast near Texas City. This plover was found by Mark Bartosik and was struggling to escape from fishing line anchored to the ground.  Mark carefully freed the plover from the fishing line but noticed that it was injured and unable to fly.  This plover was taken to a …

Contributed by Lauren Dinan, Nongame Bird Biologist Spotted Again!   Erwin, our famous Piping Plover, that is. As many of you know, Erwin was originally banded as a three-day old chick at a lakeshore housing development in Dodge County, Nebraska, in June 2011.  Erwin has been observed numerous times in winter at Bunche Beach, near Fort Myers, Florida.  Erwin has proven predictable, always returning to the same beach in Florida within the first two weeks of August and staying there throughout …

Contributed by Nongame Bird Biologist Lauren Dinan Research and monitoring are tasks the Nongame Bird Program are constantly engaged in, often with valued partners. In studies of threatened and endangered species sometimes a picture can be worth a thousand words for its beauty; it can also be an important data point. In the case of color-banded Piping Plovers, quality photographs confirm a bird’s identity and status, and provide insight into Piping Plover distribution, population dynamics, and behaviors. Our Program works …