Part 53

Field marks.--J. T. Nichols says in substance in his notes that the bird--

may be recognized by its exceedingly pale colors which nearly match the dry sand of the beach above high-water mark. The white in the wing shows so little contrast to the general tone of the plumage that, although in flight a pattern on the wing is visible, it Is very faintly indicated. A flying sanderling sometimes appears to be about the same color, but has bolder wing pattern than the plover.

The bobbing motion characteristic of several of the plovers is a common habit of the piping plover. This is a single hitching motion by which the body is tilted up and down on the legs as a fulcrum. It is apparently identical with the bob of the semipalmated plover and is made frequently as the birds stand about on the beach.

Enemies.--The piping plover is shielded from its enemies by remarkable protective coloration which renders the bird nearly invisible as it stands motionless on the gray sand, especially when among scattered stones. The eggs, the young, and the adult bird are alike protected, so now that man is no longer its deadly enemy there is little to check the species from repopulating its breeding haunts in its former numbers.

E. Beaupre speaks in his notes of a local condition in eastern Ontario. He says: “Owing to the destructive work of crows [in eating the plover’s eggs] some are obliged to lay a second clutch, and this no doubt accounts for some of the nests containing fresh eggs in June.”

Fall.--The piping plover moves southward soon after its nesting activities are over, following the habit of its relatives, the Limicolae which breed during the short summer about the Arctic Circle. Early departure from its nesting ground is not imperative in the case of this southerly breeding bird, but the habit is undoubtedly of long standing and dates back to the time when the species bred close to the edge of the glacial ice field and summer passed quickly.

Winter.--W. E. D. Scott (1892), speaking of the bird in Jamaica on its winter quarters, says: “In October, 1887, piping plover were abundant among the lagoons and mangrove swamps at the Palisades; they moved about in large flocks which, when once alighted on the shell-bestrewn beaches, it was impossible to detect.”

We leave the little plover covered by the helmet of invisibility.

DISTRIBUTION

Range.--Eastern North America and the West Indies.

Breeding range.--The breeding range of the piping plover extends north to Saskatchewan (Big Stick Lake and Quill Lake); Manitoba (Birch Island in Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipeg); Michigan (Big Beaver Island and Charity Island); Ontario (Toronto and Brighton); Quebec (probably Natashquan); and probably Newfoundland (Stephenville Crossing, St. George Bay). East to probably Newfoundland (Stephenville); the Magdalen Islands; Prince Edward Island (North River); Nova Scotia (Sable Island and Yarmouth); Massachusetts (Ipswich, Monomoy Island, and Marthas Vineyard); New York (Gardiners Island and Shelter Island); New Jersey (Barnegat Inlet, Beach Haven, Sea Isle City, and probably Cape May); Maryland (probably Ocean City); Virginia (Chincoteague Island, Cobb Island, and Cape Charles); and North Carolina (Pea Island and Beaufort). South to North Carolina (Beaufort); northern Pennsylvania (Erie); northern Ohio (Painesville, Cleveland, Oberlin, and Sandusky); northern Indiana (Millers); northern Illinois (Waukegan); southern Wisconsin (Milwaukee and Lake Koshkonong); and Nebraska (Lincoln, Dannebrog, and Doss). West to Nebraska (Goss); South Dakota (Miner County); North Dakota (Stump Lake, Minnewauken, and Kenmare); and southern Saskatchewan (Big Stick Lake).

There are many gaps in the range above outlined and the species also has been extirpated from parts of its breeding grounds.

Winter range.--Almost entirely the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. North to southern Texas (Padre Island, Aransas River and High Island); Louisiana (Vermilion Bay); Alabama (Petit Bois Island and Dauphin Island); and Georgia (Savannah). East to Georgia (Savannah and Darien); eastern Florida (Amelia Island, Mayport, St. Augustine, Sebastian, and Miami); probably the Bahama Islands (Eleuthera and Great Inagua); and probably rarely Porto Rico. South to probably rarely Port Rico; Cuba (Matanzas and Habana); southern and western Florida (Cape Sable, Key West, Sanibel Island, Fort Myers; mouth of the Withlacoochee River, and probably Pensacola); and southern Texas (Padre Island). West to southern Texas (Padre Island). The species has been detected in winter occasionally in Bermuda.

Spring migration.--Early dates of spring arrival are: South Carolina, Frogmore, March 20; North Carolina, Pea Island, April 7; District of Columbia, Washington, March 25; Pennsylvania, Erie, April 16; New York, Shinnecock, March 24, Montauk Point, April 1, and Gardiners Island, April 7; Rhode Island, Newport, March 24; Massachusetts, Marthas Vineyard, March 18, Dennis, March 24, and Nantucket, March 26; Nova Scotia, April 24; Illinois, Colona, April 9, and De Kalb, April 18; Indiana, Waterloo, April 14, and Frankfort, April 15; Ohio, Lakeside, April 7, and Oberlin, April 15; Michigan, Port Sanilac, April 15, Ottawa Beach, April 23, and Detroit, April 26; Ontario, Point Pelee, April 10, Listowel, May 1, and Toronto, May 8; Iowa, German Center, April 10; Wisconsin, Whitewater, April 29, and Elkhorn, May 13; Minnesota, Waseca, May 11, and Heron Lake, May 11; Kansas, Lawrence, April 27, McPherson, May 3, and Topeka, May 7; Nebraska, Lincoln, April 26, Gibbon, May 4, Nebraska City, May 8, and Doss, May 11; South Dakota, Sioux Falls, May 5, and Vermilion, May 8; North Dakota, Harrisburg, May 23, and St. Thomas, May 29; Manitoba, Shoal Lake, May 15, and Killarney, May 25; and Saskatchewan, Indian Head, May 14, Qu’Appelle, May 23, and Lake Johnston, May 23.

Late dates of spring departure are: Florida, Amelia Island, April 20, Daytona Beach, May 1, and Peninsula Point, May 11; and South Carolina, Sullivans Island, May 11, and Mount Pleasant, May 18.

Fall migration.--Early dates of arrival in the fall are: Texas, Rockport, August 12, and St. Joseph Island, August 14; Mississippi, Bay St. Louis, August 29; South Carolina, Mount Pleasant, August 2; Florida, New Smyrna, July 15, Fernandina, August 3, and Daytona, August 10; and Alabama, Dauphin Island, August 16.

Late dates of fall departure are: Manitoba, Shoal Lake, September 7; South Dakota, Forestburg, September 24; Nebraska, Bellwood, September 19, and Doss, September 24; Iowa, Grinnell, October 28; Ontario, Point Pelee, September 22; Michigan, Newbury, September 18; Ohio, Cleveland, September 24, Painesville, September 26, and Port Clinton, September 28; Indiana, La Fayette, September 18; Prince Edward Island, North River, October 20; Nova Scotia, Pictou, October 8; Vermont, Bennington, October 2; Massachusetts, Lynn, October 3, Dennis, October 12, and Boston, October 26; Rhode Island, Block Island, October 24; New York, Fair Haven Light, September 28, and Long Beach, November 7 (exceptionally late date); New Jersey, Cape May, September 13; and Pennsylvania, Erie, September 26.

Casual records.--The piping plover has been detected outside of its regular range on very few occasions. A specimen in the British Museum from the Lake of the Woods, Ontario, may indicate breeding in that locality. One was obtained at Cheyenne, Wyo., on May 30, 1892.

Egg dates.--Quebec and New Brunswick: 55 records, June 1 to 29; 28 records, June 5 to 18. New England to New Jersey: 48 records, May 22 to June 29; 24 records, May 28 to June 23. Dakotas: 13 records, May 26 to July 1; 7 records, May 28 to June 6.

CHARADRIUS NIVOSUS NIVOSUS (Cassin)

SNOWY PLOVER

HABITS

The charming little snowy plover of the Pacific coast is the counterpart of our familiar piping plover, found in similar haunts, perhaps even tamer and more confiding, but not equal to our eastern bird in melody of voice. It is a child of the sand, with which its colors blend so well that when crouched in some hollow or against some bleached piece of driftwood or half buried clam shell it seems to be just one more of the numerous, inconspicuous objects which one passes unnoticed on the beach. Its favorite haunts are the broad expanses of flat, dry sand above the ordinary wash of the tides on ocean beaches. Such places are usually strewn more or less thickly with shells, pebbles, and various bits of débris, among which the little plover, or its eggs and young, are surprisingly inconspicuous. Here it was born and has always lived; here it woos its mate and rears its little family; and hence it seldom strays except to feed along the water’s edge on the ocean beach or on the bare flats along some near-by tidal creek. There are, however, a few places in the interior where the snowy plover has been found along the shores of salt or alkaline lakes. But it is mainly a bird of the ocean beaches.

Spring.--The snowy plover wanders north in the spring as far as the coast of Washington. D. E. Brown tells me that he saw it in Grays Harbor County from April 7 to 13, 1918, and from May 14 to 16, 1914, in Pacific County. But apparently no one has ever found it breeding there, although several good observers have looked for it.

Nesting.--The nesting grounds of the snowy plover have been briefly described above, but a better description is contained in the following quotation from W. Lee Chambers (1904):

The nesting ground is a white sandy cape or narrow strip of land between Ballona Swamp and the ocean about 2 miles long and 200 yards wide. This place during the fall high tides is completely flooded and deposits of small rocks and broken shells are left there. Among these the plovers place their nests. On approaching it one may be attracted by noticing the little fellows running about on the sand in front of him or occasionally flying in low, wide circles uttering a pleading whistle so characteristic of this species. This whistle I have learned is a danger signal that I am near their nests, and on looking over the ground carefully I may be able to notice fine bird tracks in the white sand or in the patches of white sand between the shells and rocks.

In going over the ground carefully where the tracks are the thickest a nest will generally be found. Sometimes the birds will build among the small rocks, where the tracks can not be seen, and here the eggs are safe, as their coloration protects them, for they look exactly like small rocks. The nests are, as a rule, found by a mark of some kind, a bone of some animal, a small dead weed, or a bit of driftwood, and are slight depressions in the sand. Some are completely lined with broken shells or fish bones with the eggs pointed toward the center, very close together and about half buried in the nest lining. A pair of birds will build several nests during the season and use only one, for I have found nests all fixed up and completely surrounded with tracks. This I noticed especially in 1901, for I found about three times as many unused nests as used ones. During this season I visited Ballona about three times a week and gave the birds careful study.

While J. Eugene Law was helping me to get acquainted with the birds of southern California, we spent a delightful day, May 29, 1914, among these birds with Mr. Chambers at Del Rey, Los Angeles County. This was once a typical nesting place of this species, a broad stretch of sand flats above an ocean beach, backed by sand dunes and bordered on the inner side by a sluggish stream meandering through a marsh and some brackish lagoons. But civilization was encroaching on the plover’s paradise, for several cottages had been built on the beach and it was much frequented. Some four pairs of snowy plover still clung to their ancestral home; we found three nests with three eggs each and one empty nest, in open spaces among the houses. The nests were mostly on little mounds of sand and scattered pebbles or among low sand dunes covered with low weeds and vines. They were deep hollows in the sand, profusely lined with finely broken white and pink shells, among scattered small stones, bits of wood, or other rubbish. Amid such surroundings the eggs were not easily detected; but we could usually locate the nests by the multitude of little footprints in the sand converging toward the nest. All but one of the birds were shy and sneaked off the nests before we drew near. They watched us from a distance, running about very swiftly, whistling their soft, plaintive notes of protest. One bird was very tame; I gradually walked up very close to her and finally photographed her within 3 or 4 feet. This gentle and confiding little bird, after running about with drooping wings and spread tail, came slowly up to the nest and settled down on the eggs right in front of me, spreading out her plumage to cover her treasures. As a reward for her bravery we did not disturb her further.