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cages around plover nests...

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Subject: cages around plover nests...
From: "Peregrine" <>
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 20:04:55 -0500 (EST)
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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