It’s been three years since a Piping Plover has been seen in Manitoba. This bird relies on flat, wide beaches with very little vegetation, but with higher than normal water levels most of their nesting habitat has been flooded.
2016 marks three years since a Piping Plover has been seen in Manitoba. This bird relies on flat, wide beaches with very little vegetation, but with higher than normal water levels most of their nesting habitat has been flooded.
“When you start with a population so low to begin with, it just can’t catch up to natural events,” says Ken Porteous of the Manitoba Piping Plover Recovery Program.
Porteous has put out a call to the birding community of Manitoba, as well as cottagers or anyone else, to report any sightings of the Piping Plover in Manitoba. He says with re-distribution of sand in some areas he is trying to be at least a little bit optimistic.
“I always hold out hope,” he says. “But with three straight years, the story is not good. It doesn’t have a happy ending at this point.”
Although the Piping Plover population in Manitoba has dwindled to nothing, Porteous says the overall population of the bird is staying strong, and even slightly increasing.
There are actually three separate populations of Piping Plover: the Northern Great Plains (historically found in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and some northern states); The Great Lakes population (which has recently repopulated in Canada); and the Atlantic Coast Piping Plovers (found from Newfoundland to the Carolinas). Porteous says because of the overall stability of these populations it isn’t completely unrealistic that Manitoba could see Piping Plovers again one day.
That’s why Porteous takes all sightings seriously. “Anybody who thinks they see one can give me a call – I check them all out,” he says.
Often people mistake Killdeers for Piping Plovers, but Porteous says it can be quite difficult for the general public to tell them apart. Some small distinctions between the two are that Killdeers have two “neckbands” as opposed to the Plover which has only one, and the Killdeer is slightly darker (like wet sand versus dry sand).
If you think you may have spotted a Piping Plover you can call Ken Porteous at the Manitoba Piping Plover Recovery Program, 204-898-2654.
*UPDATE AUGUST 2016 – PAIR OF PIPING PLOVERS SUCCESSFULLY BREED READ CBC'S ARTICLE: The Piping Plover finds a way to recover
photos: Killdeer by Christian Artuso; Piping Plover by Ron Thiessen