Endangered piping plover sighted on Sanibel
The Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation reported that federally-endangered piping plovers normally live five or six years, but one female in the Great Lakes is 14 years old — the oldest known one in the region. One of her chicks born over the summer was recently spotted on Sanibel, roughly 1,500 miles from where it hatched in Michigan.
SCCF shorebird technician Aaron White helped gather the banding data, which contributes to population information for the threatened species. Piping plovers are one of several “snowbird” species that winter on Sanibel with others, including red knots, dunlins and short-billed dowitchers.
“This is the first re-sight of a banded fledge from this year’s breeding season, signifying the first of many successful migratory journeys from freshly fledged piping plovers,” he said. “It was a particularly exciting find.”
The SCCF reported that banding piping plovers helps ornithologists track them as they make the migration from their Great Lakes breeding grounds to their wintering grounds along the southern United States. coast. They have been listed under the Endangered Species Act since the 1980s.
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