Piping Plover update

Photo: Dane Adams

I recently posted about two Piping Plovers that spent a few days in mid-July at Lorain, Ohio. That post is RIGHT HERE. Well, Dave Slager made the effort to run down the band information and received the following information from Alice Van Zoeren, a researcher at the University of Minnnesota. All or nearly all Piping Plovers that breed along the Great Lakes are prominently marked with combinations of colored bands that can be used to identify the individual. Thanks to Dave for posting this information to the Ohio Birds listserv:

*Bird 1 (the bird with no leg flag, an orange band, and a light green band)*


"I can't be as specific for this report since the band combination is one
used for chicks. We reuse these combinations in subsequent years. Breeding
adults, like the other plover you reported, are given unique combinations of
colors that individually identify them for life. This plover was hatched in
07, 09 or 10 at Gulliver, MI in the upper peninsula or possibly (though
probably not as likely) at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, WI in 2006."

*Bird 2 (the bird with 2 yellow color bands, an orange band, and an orange

leg flag)*

"Thanks for your reports of two Great Lakes Piping Plovers. This male plover
was hatched in 2007 near Escanaba, MI and banded in 2009 at Port Inland, MI
along US-2 in the Upper Peninsula."