One of the more intense conservation efforts here on the east coast of
the United states and Canada is the preservation of the threatened Piping
Plover. These are small sand colored plovers which enjoy nesting on the same
white sandy beaches that are so attractive to beach-goers. as a result,
there is little undisturbed habitat for them to nest in. They are preyed
upon by gulls, raccoons, cats and foxes (although our foxes aren't
introduced). In my area, and many others, plover nest are protected by a
wire mesh cage around the nesting area and fence which is intended to
keep people away from the actual nest site. This is a fairly labor
intensive job, since nests must be located and fenced, however, the
result is an apparent increase in the success of piping plover nesting
efforts. the baby plovers arent protected from predators once they leave
the nest, of course, but at least the cage prevents people and animals
from trampling the eggs. The wire mesh is large enough to allow the
plovers easy access. I'm sorry to hear that a similar effort has not been
so effective in Australia.
theres a page on a piping plover recovery progam at
http://cfn.cs.dal.ca/Recreation/FieldNaturalists/guardian.html
in other news, i took a 3 day birding trip to maine this weekend in the
balmy -21C weather and finally after 8 years of trying got my life Snowy
owl! yay! other highlights included good looks at Barrow's Goldeneye,
Black-headed Gull, Iceland Gull, King Eider (excellent bird), Oldsquaw
ducks, American Widgeon, and a small flock of exotic and very out of
place looking Monk Parakeets.
Good birding!
Katie Bertsche (wishing she was back in australia right now. brr!)
Katie Bertsche .........If you're too busy to go birding, you're too busy.
http://www.bowdoin.edu/~kbertsch
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