Piping
Plover
Charadrius melodus
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Natural
History
Eons ago, dinosaurs ruled the
earth. They dominated nearly every aspect of our world--jungles,
forests, tropics, plains, deserts and water bodies. But until the
Mesozoic era, no creatures could fly. Then, the pterodactyls came. They
ruled the skies, preying on ground and water creatures. They
were carnivores. Some scientists say that birds joined
reptiles in the sky and survived the
meteor
shower that, some say, wiped out the dinosaurs. Others disagree, and
say
that birds evolved from pterodactyls and other dinosaurs.
Back then, it was survival of the fittest, and birds were much more aerodynamic and warm-blooded, (not cold-blooded). Plus they were better suited to the skies than reptiles. After the great meteor hit, when the dust cleared, birds ruled the air. After that, birds traveled to nearly every location, and adapted wonderfully. Camouflage, beak size, feathers, bones, etc., they ALL evolved to fit in perfectly with birds' specific needs and environment. Some even lost the ability to fly because in the Antarctic, swimming is more useful than flying.
An ecosystem like
the seaside was a great place to live; food, water, shelter, and all
the crustaceans and fish you can eat! It was an all-you-can-eat buffet,
with free hotel rooms. So naturally, the plovers and other bird species
became endemic to this new place. Gradually, their beaks
changed for finding and
eating crabs. Their feathers changed color to camouflage themselves.
Sadly,
today it isn’t enough. Nature doesn’t know what to do against
commercial beaches and dune buggies! We need to help them so they don’t
become extinct. That is why piping plovers need our help
and we need to get this animal back
on track and off the endangered species list.
Habitat
The piping plover may be a seabird, but that’s not the only place you
can find them. A lot of seabirds have gone to live in the marshes and
wetlands, away from human interference. There, they can grow a better population.
But, of course, most people find them eventually and they want to
exploit this new place, draining the swamp and destroying their
habitat, not to mention thousands of other wetland creatures' homes and
feeding grounds.
Back to the subject. Piping plovers can be found from Quebec and
Newfoundland all the way to the Carolinas. They enjoy nesting on
sandy, dry beaches, but you probably won’t find one right on the beach.
They like dry places for their nests and babies--dry, sandy dunes on
the
coast. These places are protected, but some people and dogs still find
their way into the nesting grounds. Their camouflage is so good, some
people
even step on them! Dune buggies don’t help that much either.
When it gets nippy,
piping plovers migrate down to the Bahamas and Mexico to live on the
sunny beaches in paradise. If there is a warm winter, they will migrate
only a couple of hundred miles instead of the whole trip. And
like all birds,
they always find their way back home.
Present Status
USA-Threatened Maine-Endangered
Physical
Description
You probably wouldn’t confuse a
piping plover with a common seagull, as it isn’t a scavenger
and it’s a passive bird. It is a vertebrate. It’s a small
shore bird, and is so well camouflaged you might miss it if you’re not
looking for it. It’s 5-6 inches long, with a sandy brown-gray color on
top and white on its underside.
If you look a little closer, you’ll see a black band encircling its
neck, and orange, spindly legs. If you could study it up close, you
would see it’s white “eyebrows”, and maybe you could see the black tip
of its orange beak.
Now you should back up a bit. See that it’s a very small bird, almost
as small as the grasshopper sparrow, more compact than a sandpiper. Its
pigeon-like bill and big eyes make it look like a cross between a
pigeon and a seagull. As you walk away, you are reminded of a wind-up
toy as it zigzags across the sand.
Diet and Feeding Habits
Since piping plovers live
on the shore, but aren’t fishing birds, you might think they are
hopeless. But, there is a whole world of diverse creatures
living under the sand. Worms, crabs, bugs, you name it, and they’re
there.
Piping plovers eat more
little critters than Timone and Pumba! They are definitely consumers.
And their menu consists of marine worms, fly larvae, beetles, insects,
crustaceans, mollusks, and other little invertebrates. They are
basically omnivores, because there are many tasty plants around
for a bird.
Most baby piping plovers
leave the nest a few hours after hatching. Once they can walk,
somewhat, they meet up with Mom and Dad, and they get ‘em eating. The
parents teach them defensive maneuvers, such as crouching and freezing
in the sand if detected, or drilling through sand to get to food, and
evasive maneuvers (zigzagging).
The main crunch time of
feeding
happens at low tide, which is when all the goodies get washed up on
shore.
And no piping plover is above searching seaweed for tasty morsels.
Causes of Endangerment
Defenses: one of the piping plover’s main defenses is its camouflage.
It has a wide variety of sandy colors that can give just about any
predator the slip. If a raccoon gives an area a once-over, it’ll
usually miss a whole family of piping plovers! They are so good at it
they can even give us Homo sapiens the slip, or at least have us
mistake them for a common seagull.
Problems: Unfortunately, this is why they are disappearing. The piping
plover is a prime target for dune buggies, dogs, and pedestrians.
People often step on their pebbly, gray-white eggs, or destroy their
nest-holes. Dune buggies are a very serious problem for piping plovers.
Even after the machines pass by, many baby plovers get stuck in their
tracks, unable to get out. Kites look just like big bad birds of prey
to a piping plover. That makes them freeze in place, and since people
are leaving kites up for hours upon hours, plovers will stay put for a
long time, sometimes resulting in starvation.
What they’re doing: More and more plovers head for marshes and wetlands
because many of their nests are built on or near commercial
beaches, where dune buggies, people, dogs, cats, and garbage are
destroying
their home.
What we’re doing: Fortunately, park rangers and life guards are
standing up for wildlife. Fencing off dunes and plover territory helps
a lot. ‘No pet’ beaches and rangers patrolling are even better. The
plover
population has been in decline, but if we want to save them, we can do
it in time.
Personal
Essay
What is the value of wilderness to modern society?
Before you answer that question, think about what wilderness is. A
forest, a tree, an ocean. The dictionary term for wilderness is: an
uncultivated or uninhabited area. Uninhabited, huh? Well, humans
cover the Earth, only one species. What about the other trillion types
of animals that DO live in wilderness? Uninhabited, yeah right. I think
it’s our
job to put things back in place after we trashed it up.
Back to the question. We came from the wilderness. Furs and plants and
meat and cloth and game- they all come from the wilderness.
Uninhabited. If you think about it, underground is wilderness, and oil
and metals come from that. If you like your toaster, your house, you
car, your cell phone, or your computer, they all come from the
wilderness underneath us. Not
to mention all the medicines from plants and the oxygen that comes from
trees and plant that live in wilderness.
Ever heard of the piping plover? If you haven’t, check them out, ‘cause
they’re dying out pretty fast. People step on them, step on their
nests, stomping them out.
The piping plover’s
situation is mostly our fault. Things like trash, kites, dune buggies,
animals- they kill Piping plovers all the time. So the plovers go to
the next place. Wetlands. Moving out of your home environment is like a
brain injury.
You have to relearn hunting, gathering, feeding, nest building. It
isn’t
easy, especially when us humans come and get them again in their new
home.
Draining swamps and destroying wilderness, even though wilderness is so
important. You see that bulldozer you got there? It came from
wilderness. Still want to destroy the forest?
Now think about your house. Go out and buy a bucket of oil,
a lot of torn plastic, paper, toxic waste, and a lot of metal and
concrete. Take that to your house and dump all the stuff on the floor
and spread
it out. If you live like nothing happened, you will probably get sick
and/or die. If I were you, I’d break out the mop and broom.
The Earth is our home,
and
look what we did to it. We dumped all this crap on it and didn’t pick
it
up. Didn’t your mom and dad tell you to clean up after yourself? It’s
about
time we did.
Bibliography
1.
NHPTV Natureworks.www.nhptv.org/natureworks/pipingplover.htm.
(Febuary 25, 2002)
2. Peterson, Roger T. Peterson First Guides: Birds.
Boston: Houghton-Mifflin. 1986.
3. Maine Endangered Shorebirds: Piping plover and Least tern.
www.maineaudubon.org/nature/natural history/nbx23.html.
(February 28, 2003)
4.
Janet Egan’s Piping plover page. Febuary 26, 2003.
http://world.std.com/jegan/pw.html
(March 6, 2003)
5. Birds arrived comparatively late www.pbs.org/lifeofbirds/evolution.
(March 6, 2003)
6. “The Piping plover”.World Book 2001.2001.
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