(The Real) Plovers of New York

Beaches, bagels, and ’burbs: the three B’s of Long Island. If you haven’t been to the island—like me, prior to this week—you probably associate the area with some of these trademarks. But do you know about one of the tiniest but most important ‘B’s on the island—birds?

Outreach coordinator Bret Serbin’s first trip to Long Island with Long Island field biologists, USFWS.

Long Island is a crucial habitat for many birds, including a number of terns, skimmers, and even a few bald eagles. Only if you look very closely in the right places will you see one of the most important birds on Long Island: the piping plover, a tiny shorebird unique to North America that has been considered threatened since 1986.

Atlantic Coast Piping Plovers

Piping plovers are small migratory shorebirds with white and sandy coloring that nearly camouflages them in their beach surroundings. The Atlantic Coast breeding population was listed as a federally threatened species in 1986 and are considered endangered within the state of New York. Their entire Atlantic Coast New York population is concentrated on Long Island beaches, where they make their nests for the spring and summer and fortify themselves for their long journey south. As you’re reading this, hundreds of plovers are preparing for their imminent migration to their wintering grounds in far-off tropical destinations like the Bahamas and Cuba.

Here you see an adult and chick plover blend in with their surroundings, USFWS.

Piping plovers love sandy open spaces for their summer homes and thrive on the tiny invertebrates that colonize decaying vegetation known as wrack. But due to major habitat loss and disturbance from beach recreation, plover populations have grown precarious.

Long Island is a crucial site for plover protection and recovery.

Arverne, for instance, is a community on the very western part of the island where there was once no hope for plover reproduction. Now, this site is on track to support the Service’s recovery goal of 575 breeding pairs for the New York-New Jersey area. This success comes after years of dedicated efforts by community members, legislators, and scientists to protect the birds and their environment.

A beach in Arverne, a success story for piping plover recovery, USFWS.

Piping Plovers of the Great Lakes

 And while Long Island habitats like these have become hotspots for the plovers, the Long Island gang is not alone in the state of New York.

There is a Great Lakes piping plover population (say that 5 times fast) that is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The majority of Great Lakes birds nest in Michigan, but scattered pairs occur in other Great Lakes states including New York. This population went from a low of 12 pairs in 1990 to a high of 75 pairs in 2015, but it remains small enough to be vulnerable to shoreline development, public recreation, predators, human disturbance and extreme weather events.

In 2015, after a 30-year hiatus, Great Lakes piping plovers returned to nest in New York State on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario.

Assessing the health of the piping plover chicks on Sandy Island Beach State Park, USFWS.

This year there was another documented successful breeding pair that took up residence at Sandy Island Beach State Park in Pulaski, New York. Four plover chicks were reared and fledged while being closely monitored by conservation scientists. The New York State Office of Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation (Parks) designated a protected bird nesting area which allowed these plovers to have a safe place to nest and forage for food. Parks hired full time staff to educate beach goers as well as protect the plovers out on Sandy Island Beach.

Ways to Protect Plovers

 Ways we can help protect all populations of piping plovers is to continue to protect and conserve habitat. If carefully and thoughtfully planned, development can occur on shorelines without affecting nesting plovers or landowner enjoyment or access to the shoreline.

Keeping our distance from the chicks by walking in the water during a health survey, USFWS.

Invasive plants such as spotted knapweed, lime grass and phragmites rapidly take over and alter habitat along the shorelines and dunes, making it less desirable for nesting plovers. Removal of invasive plants each season will help maintain plover habitat.

As a beach goer there are some simple ways we can share the beach with piping plover adults and chicks and help them survive:

• Follow the guidance on signs and respect all areas fenced or posted for protection of wildlife.
• Watch these entertaining birds from a distance.
• If pets are permitted on beaches, keep them leashed and away from birds.
• Remove trash and food scraps, which attract animals that might eat piping plovers and their eggs.
• Do not feed animals on or near the beach. Keep your cats indoors.
• Volunteer as a piping plover monitor, ambassador, or educator on your local beach. Tell your friends and family how to help.

Starting in April, sites with proper nesting habitat are surveyed to locate nesting piping plovers. Once a nest is found it is protected by placing a wire enclosure over the nest. This provides protection from predators, while allowing the adult plovers to come and go for feeding. The entire nesting site is posted to inform people to keep their distance.

You can take initiative to help keep piping plovers safe and continue to allow this amazing migratory species to not only survive, but thrive.

This blog was written in partnership with Bret Serbin from the Long Island Field Office

 

Tiny Technology That’s Making a Big Difference

Technology is amazing. Here in the Northeast Region, new advances in technology are allowing us to find out so much more about animal behavior than we have ever known before. Armed with this knowledge, we are able to make much better choices about how to protect these animals. One example of an animal that is benefiting from these technological advances is the saltmarsh sparrow.

Credit: Katrina Amaral

These are tough times for the tiny saltmarsh sparrow. Their only home, the saltmarshes along the Atlantic coast of the United States, are becoming increasingly scarce due to development and rising sea levels. With fewer places to live, saltmarsh sparrow populations are decreasing as well.

In order to determine the best way to help the sparrows, researchers need to know more about their behavior, how they are using the marshes, and which locations are most important to their survival.

Credit: Bri Benvenuti

Because these birds are so small, only weighing about as much as 8 pennies, individual birds have been difficult to track with traditional tracking devices, which were much too large and heavy for them. However, researchers from several of our region’s National Wildlife Refuges, along with other partners, are using today’s tiny tagging technology to find out exactly what these birds are up to!

 

Credit: Bri Benvenuti

Credit: Bri Benvenuti

The MOTUS tracking system uses nano-tags, miniature radio transmitters that are extremely lightweight. All nano-tags transmit at the same frequency, but each tag has its own identifiable pulse rate.

Credit: Bri Benvenuti

Receiving towers pick up these pulses when a tagged bird flies within a radius of 12 kilometers. Researchers have installed these towers in an expansive network up and down the eastern coast of North America, among other areas. The yellow dots in the map below represent current tower locations.

Credit: Bird Studies Canada- Motus Wildlife Tracking System, http://www.motus-wts.org

Credit: Kate O’Brien

 

One of the most exciting things about this system is the collaboration between researchers and organizations, all working together to collect and share data in an effort to conserve wildlife. The data that they are collecting is not restricted to saltmarsh sparrows. Researchers are studying bats, butterflies, and various other bird species using the nano-tag system as well. Data from the network of towers is downloaded and shared with researchers, providing a service to conservationists everywhere.

So what does this mean for our little saltmarsh sparrow?

Credit: Brian C. Harris

Actually, we aren’t sure yet. This system is so new that data is just beginning to come in. However, we are already discovering some amazing things!

Credit: Saltmarsh Habitat and Avian Research Program

For example, preliminary data shows that a few saltmarsh sparrows flew from the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Wells, ME to the Connecticut coastline, a distance of over 150 miles, in just one day!

Migratory route of three saltmarsh sparrows. Credit: Saltmarsh Habitat & Avian Research Program

As we learn more about the behavior of these tiny birds, we will begin to answer many questions that we could only guess at before. This knowledge will guide us as we work to conserve their most important habitats in an effort to ensure their survival for generations to come.

This saltmarsh sparrow project is a collaboration of several partners, including the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, the Rhode Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex, the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge, the University of New Hampshire, the University of Connecticut, and the Saltmarsh Habitat and Avian Research Program.

For more information, please explore the following links:

Past blog posts about the Region’s nanotag programs

Saltmarsh Habitat & Avian Research Program

Motus Wildlife Tracking System

Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge on Facebook

Rhode Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex on Facebook

Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Facebook

Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge on Facebook

Our land, our water, our heritage

Today we start a series about the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which turns 50 on September 3. Northeast Region Chief of Realty, Joe McCauley, starts off our series with his take on why the fund is so important to our country.

In 1964, the Congress and President Lyndon Johnson performed a great service to the American people when they established the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Land, water, and conservation: simple terms that, when combined, speak directly to who we are as a people.

We have not always been as vigilant as we should be to conserve our nation’s natural resources, as evidenced by the mass clearcutting of eastern forests in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and the dust bowl era of the 1930s. But even if we have to play catch-up, time after time we show, through laws like the Land and Water Conservation Act, that we do care about our land and water, and the wild things that depend on them.

My job is to oversee the purchase of lands for national wildlife refuges in the 13 northeast states using the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Reflecting back on the work of our current and former land protection staff, it is gratifying to see the amazing results of our efforts, in partnership with thousands of landowners who have helped leave a lasting legacy for all Americans.

The iconic Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, home to Lake Drummond, one of only two natural lakes in Virginia. The refuge provides unique fishing and boating on Lake Drummond, annual hunting opportunities and habitat for various species of mammals, birds and butterflies. The Land and Water Conservation Fund has conserved nearly 47,000 acres of this environmentally and biologically important 110,000-acre refuge.

Over 50 national wildlife refuges in our northeast states were established or have grown because of the Land and Water Conservation Fund.  With these funds, more than 160,000 acres in the densely-populated northeast are now permanently protected as part of the National Wildlife Refuge System. Without the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the fate of these valuable fish and wildlife habitats would be in jeopardy. These lands and waters not only support hundreds of migratory bird species, and many threatened and endangered species of fish, wildlife and plants, but are also available for recreation and education, making these purchases a wise investment in our future.

We have many “greats” in our region: Great Swamp, home to the first Wilderness Area designated on Department of the Interior lands; Great Meadows, serving the urban and suburban population of Boston; and Great Dismal Swamp, our region’s largest refuge at over 100,000 acres, once surveyed by George Washington. History plays an important role in many refuges as evidenced by native American names such as Massasoit, Missisquoi, and Rappahannock. We honor conservation heroes like Rachel Carson, Congressman Silvio O. Conte and Senator John H. Chafee, who said if he was reincarnated, he wanted to come back as a Fish and Wildlife Service employee! We would have loved to have had him in the ranks.

Since 1956, the fund has helped support our wildlife refuges, parks and historic sites; conserved our forests, rivers, lakes and wildlife habitat; and provided access to recreation, hunting and fishing for current and future generations.

If you have visited our 50+ refuges that have lands purchased with the Land and Water Conservation Fund, you know first-hand how important these funds are. You may have watched your child catch his or her first fish, or learned the skill of hunting from your grandfather. You may have gone on a field trip to learn about the fish and wildlife in the place where you live, or seen your first bald eagle diving for a catch. You may have seen tens of thousands of waterfowl take flight at dawn or a lone great blue heron stalking the marshes. If you haven’t, you still can, thanks to the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and the foresight of our nation’s leaders who made it happen 50 years ago.