David, Entry #1, My Field Work with Piping Plovers Begins!

I wasn't planning on writing a blog post until at least a week in, but I actually had a really interesting first day as the result of the atypical weather and tides.

Piping Plovers are a federally and state endangered species. Last summer the number of piping plovers in NJ reached a record low since it was added to the endangered species list in the 1980's. The biggest reason for this decline is nest failure which can come about by disturbance by humans (when you go to the beach remember you share it with wildlife too!), disturbance by other animals (foxes, raccoon, and crows love to eat plover eggs), and flooding. The common trend that wildlife biologists have been observing in NJ over the past few years is that a large percentage of plover nests are failing. The goal of the research I am involved in this summer is to better understand the reasons nests fail, with the hopes that this information will allow us to prevent nest failure in the future.

My day began at 5:30 am. Unfortunately birds don't operate on the "normalized" 8 to 3 work schedule of us humans, they prefer sunrise to sunset, which makes field work tiring. However, it's a lot of fun!
Last night (June 1st) was a full moon high tide (which means the water level came up REALLY high on the beaches). That coupled with the storm and flash flooding could have lead to surges of water across areas of beach normally not disturbed by the natural tides of the ocean. For this reason the grad student I am working with and her team of researchers decided to check plover nests in an area they know from previous seasons to be susceptible to flooding.

This picture shows the conditions we were working in and the condition these birds are living in. High wind power, powerful water currents, mix of rain, fog over the water, and cold temperatures. It felt more like winter than summer!

The picture below shows two nest enclosures. The enclosures have electric wire around them and prevent predators from accessing the nests. While this protects the eggs, it makes the adults more susceptible as some predators have learned to be attracted to these enclosures to attack the adult birds. The nest in the background, which is much closer to the ocean, was damaged during the storm and will most likely fail. The nest in the foreground was okay. UPDATE: The adults actually returned to that washed out nest and dug up all the eggs, continued incubating, and now there are cute little plover chicks running around! 


























This is a nest enclosure up close. We build a mound inside to move the nest onto. This gives the nest some added elevation to protect against flooding.

A plover nest is a simple scrape in the ground. Some pairs will decorate it with shells and plant material. This pair did not.

Pictured below is a male piping plover pretending to have a broken wing. Many species of birds, mainly those that nest on the ground, perform this behavior as a way to protect their nests. Predators are lured away from the eggs by the sight of an injured adult bird (more food than an egg). When the predator is far enough from the nest that it is safe, the adult will stop pretending and fly away, leaving the predator confused and hungry.

Over the next few weeks we will be banding the chicks at two dozen nests as they hatch. Color bands will allow us to identify the individual chick. We return to each site twice a week to conduct surveys on the population. The observational data collected will allow us to calculated the survival-ship of the chicks.