The Piping Plover is becoming scarce

By Al Lowe
Contributor

Here is a small plover which is becoming very scarce. Like many shore birds, this one used to be present in great numbers along the Atlantic coast, the Great Lakes, and the major inland lakes.
Also, like many other shore birds, it was shot for food in vast quantities up till about 1900 or so. But that's not all. It is quite particular about where it nests. It must have sandy beaches (on the ocean, just above the tide line.) Now sandy beaches are also greatly admired by bathers, sun worshippers, people with all-terrain vehicles, and so on. So a great many of its nesting areas have been taken over, and a lot of its eggs and nests simply wiped out.
Along the Atlantic, it is found only in some isolated places. In southern Ontario, it has all but disappeared from the Lakes. And here in the north, it is now found in only a very few of its former nesting areas. One of these is on an island in Lake of the Woods, not very far from Rainy River. This contains a colony which (so far) has been fairly successful, and still is. It is also still breeding on the beaches of some of the big lakes in Manitoba.
The Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) is a small bird, about the size of a robin. Its head, back and wings are pale brownish, a sandy colour. So it can disappear on the beach by just staying still. It has yellow legs, and a yellow beak with a black tip. It also has a black mark on the front of its head, and a black ring on its chest, which may or may not go all the way across. Actually, its markings are quite similar to those of some of the larger plovers, only much paler.
The plover lays its eggs on the sand, just barely scraping out a shallow, dish-shaped depression. The old bird just has to stay still to become just about invisible. The tiny chicks, which can run as soon as the dry off, are creamy coloured. According to one observer, when they are distributed, they run across the sand looking like little balls of fluff.
Like most plovers, these eat a great variety of things found at the shore - insects, marine worms, small marine animals, and so on. They often feed like robins, running here and there, and pulling big worms out of the sand.
In turn, their eggs and chicks are food for a wide variety of predators, skunks, raccoons, foxes and especially gulls, which have a real knack for finding the nests.
This little bird is on the endangered list. Its numbers have declined all over its range. A fairly recent estimate places the number in all of Canada at about 1500. Since it winters on the southern Atlantic coast, and the Gulf of Mexico, where the shore is being developed at a great rate, we will likely see a future decline as time goes by.
It is a great pity that so much of our wildlife cannot stand the inroads of our civilization.