Western Snowy Plover

WESTERN SNOWY PLOVER

(Charadrius alexandrinus nivosus )

by Liam Hanlon

Background

The current breeding area for the Western Snowy Plover starts from Damon Point, Washington all the way down to Bahia Magdalena, Baja California. The Snowy Plover prefers to breed in areas above the high tide line on coastal beaches, dune-backed beaches, sand spits and beaches with a creek or river running into the ocean. The three main reasons for the decline in this species are; habitat degradation caused by urban development, the introduction of beach grass in the breeding grounds and increasing populations of predators. The Western Snowy Plover has a wingspan of 14 inches and only weighs 2 oz.

Ecology

The Western Snowy Plover moves up and down the coast throughout the year searching for invertebrates that it can feast on the surface of the sand or in washed up seaweed, as well as a breeding ground. Plovers breeding season is in the Spring, from March to September, where they use a polygamous breeding strategy. The duration of the breeding season is usually between 2 and 4 weeks for most populations. As far as the population size, there plovers have no preference as they have been observed as a single species in a particular area and up to 300 in the same population. Currently over ¾ of the breeding populations can be found across 8 beaches in california, one of them being Morro Bay. The egg laying takes about 3-5 days with a month of incubation. Since the listing, the plover hatch success rate has increased from a 40% to 69% success rate. The health and well being of this species can be seen as an indicator species for western sand dune ecosystems.

Geographic and Population Changes

As seen in the picture in the background section the population range and breeding grounds for the Western Snowy Plover range from Damon Point, Washington all the way down to Bahia Magdalena, Baja California. Since the Plover is a very small bird, many people don’t notice it, and as a result their breeding grounds get destroyed by human interference. The geographic range of the plover has not changed recently as each individual may choose to stay in the same area for its lifetime or choose to migrate with the seasons. The males who do not leave their territory become protective and often times also stay with their mate.

Listing Date and Type of Listing

The manager of the California/ Nevada Operations office for the US Fish and Wildlife Service signed the listing for the Western Snowy Plover as part of the Endangered Species List as a threatened species in 1993 by the USFWS then the plan was revised in August of 2008. The projected date of recovery for the Snowy plover is projected to be in 2047 where they plan to remove the species from the list. They project that over the 39 year period the total cost of operations will be $149,946,000.

Causes of listing and Main threats

Snowy plovers are very small, light birds which means that they have a hard time breeding due to wind and other natural disturbances. Other, larger animals and birds will often times eat the eggs of the plovers and in some cases larger birds or mammals will eat the adults, lowering the population even more. As well as these natural causes, the increase of infrastructure and recreation along the coast line has disturbed the breeding grounds for the plover. The chickens can’t fly for the first 4 weeks they are alive, and are not feed by their parents but they are guided to areas where they can find food and the parents use distraction techniques to distract predators. Most chick mortality occurs within the first 6 days of the chicks lives.

Recovery Plan

The recovery plan can be simplified into three main objectives:

1. Increasing the population of the snowy plover across the western coastline.
2. Increasing management for the species and its habitat and creating new management strategies to protect the species.
3. Monitoring Western Snowy Plover populations and finding threats to the populations in aims to monitor the success of their recovery.

The following is a list of criteria that must be met in order for the delisting of the snowy plover (projected to be complete in 2047).

1. Breeding

An average of 3,000 or more breeding adults, maintained for 10 years.

2. Productivity

An average productivity of at least 1 fledged chick per male, maintained for 5 years

3. Sustainability

Implementations and long term protection in place that will assure the success of the species in the future.

Here are some links to videos about Snowy Plovers if this post interested you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhK8zylkMdc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CruIK Xh4


What Can you do ?
If you are interested in helping the snowy plovers, Morro bay is one of the major breeding grounds for the Western Snowy Plover. So you can go out and help the Morro Bay State Park Rd, Morro Bay, CA 93442 · (805) 772-2560. My Aunt happens to be working on the recovery of the Snowy Plover and I was lucky enough to go out and help banning plovers a few weekends ago.

Works Cited

Wolf, Michael. "Baby Birdorable: Snowy Plover." Birdorable RSS. Birdorable, 11 June 2010. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

Superintendent, Sector. "Snowy Plover Protection." Snowy Plover Protection. State of California, 12 Sept. 2011. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2007. Recovery Plan for the Pacific Coast Population of the Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nivosus). In 2 volumes. Sacramento, California.

Peterson, Jerard. "Population Status and Recovery Plan." Audubon California. National Audubon Society, 02 July 2015. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.