April 16, 2005

0 for 2
April 16, 2005

South end of the beach today. No piping plovers in evidence. Not a peep.
An out of town birder with a big scope comes by and wants to know if I've seen anything interesting. I tell him about a flock of brant that just flew by, but he doesn't find brant interesting. Another visitor wants to know if there are piping plover chicks yet. Chicks? The parents just got here! They probably haven't even laid eggs yet. Visitors are sparse so I have lots of time to watch the brant fly back and forth and scan the horizon for gannets.

One of the refuge volunteers who maintains the fences and boardwalks and stuff like that stops by to chat. He gives me the old line about piping plovers being a culinary delicacy. Somehow, I didn't expect that from a refuge volunteer. I get that from visitors sometimes, though usually as a either a joke or a hostile comment 'cause they want the beach back. He, however, insists that piping plovers are eaten in large numbers in Central and South America and thus our efforts at protecting them are costing US taxpayers big bucks to feed the world. I'm so shocked to hear this from a refuge volunteer that I laugh it off. Folks, this is a legend! Guess I can't call it an urban legend because it circulates mainly in coastal communities as something that is supposedly "widely known."

At least I think it's a legend. Piping plovers mostly nest on the Atlantic coast from Nova Scotia south to North Carolina and in the Great Lakes area north into Alberta, Canada. They normally winter along the southern coast of North America from North Carolina to Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. At least that's what all my bird books say. Other species of plover do live in or migrate through South America: semipalmated plover and snowy plover (also endangered in the US) and the American golden plover. So I've always believed that the greedy beach development people who claim the USA is spending gobs of taxpayers' money to provide tasty endangered treats for people in South America were confusing the piping plover with other plover species that are far more likely to show up in South America. How many piping plovers would make it to South America to be eaten? Enough. Why am I letting this guy get inside my head!?!

The refuge manager stops by to chat. I don't tell her about my odd encounter with the fellow volunteer. I've put it out of my mind.

I keep trying to make out what species of scoter that little mini-flock just out of binocular range is. I read an article in Birding about how to identify sea birds from shore but all scoter shaped beings look alike to me in the hazy distance.

No piping plovers today. I'm batting 0 for 2 in the invisi-bird quest.

Todays' Bird Sightings
Plum Island
brant 20
herring gull 19
double crested cormorant 5
mourning dove 1
scoters of some kind 4
common loon 1
northern gannet 1
great black back gull 2
redwinged blackbird 3
purple finch 1
Mammals
Vistiors 11
Refuge staff 2
Coast Guard Assets
none

Today's Reading
Birdsong by Don Stap

This Year's Reading
2005 Booklist

Today's Starting Pitcher
Matt Clement

Back to The Plover Warden Diaries

Ignore this nav-thing unless you are reading Journal of a Sabbatical

Copyright © 2005, Janet I. Egan

0 for 2 April 16, 2005

South end of the beach today. No piping plovers in evidence. Not a peep. An out of town birder with a big scope comes by and wants to know if I've seen anything interesting. I tell him about a flock of brant that just flew by, but he doesn't find brant interesting. Another visitor wants to know if there are piping plover chicks yet. Chicks? The parents just got here! They probably haven't even laid eggs yet. Visitors are sparse so I have lots of time to watch the brant fly back and forth and scan the horizon for gannets. One of the refuge volunteers who maintains the fences and boardwalks and stuff like that stops by to chat. He gives me the old line about piping plovers being a culinary delicacy. Somehow, I didn't expect that from a refuge volunteer. I get that from visitors sometimes, though usually as a either a joke or a hostile comment 'cause they want the beach back. He, however, insists that piping plovers are eaten in large numbers in Central and South America and thus our efforts at protecting them are costing US taxpayers big bucks to feed the world. I'm so shocked to hear this from a refuge volunteer that I laugh it off. Folks, this is a legend! Guess I can't call it an urban legend because it circulates mainly in coastal communities as something that is supposedly "widely known." At least I think it's a legend. Piping plovers mostly nest on the Atlantic coast from Nova Scotia south to North Carolina and in the Great Lakes area north into Alberta, Canada. They normally winter along the southern coast of North America from North Carolina to Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. At least that's what all my bird books say. Other species of plover do live in or migrate through South America: semipalmated plover and snowy plover (also endangered in the US) and the American golden plover. So I've always believed that the greedy beach development people who claim the USA is spending gobs of taxpayers' money to provide tasty endangered treats for people in South America were confusing the piping plover with other plover species that are far more likely to show up in South America. How many piping plovers would make it to South America to be eaten? Enough. Why am I letting this guy get inside my head!?! The refuge manager stops by to chat. I don't tell her about my odd encounter with the fellow volunteer. I've put it out of my mind. I keep trying to make out what species of scoter that little mini-flock just out of binocular range is. I read an article in Birding about how to identify sea birds from shore but all scoter shaped beings look alike to me in the hazy distance. No piping plovers today. I'm batting 0 for 2 in the invisi-bird quest.		Todays' Bird Sightings Plum Island brant 20 herring gull 19 double crested cormorant 5 mourning dove 1 scoters of some kind 4 common loon 1 northern gannet 1 great black back gull 2 redwinged blackbird 3 purple finch 1 Mammals Vistiors 11 Refuge staff 2 Coast Guard Assets none Today's Reading Birdsong by Don Stap This Year's Reading 2005 Booklist Today's Starting Pitcher Matt Clement
		Back to The Plover Warden Diaries Ignore this nav-thing unless you are reading Journal of a Sabbatical Copyright © 2005, Janet I. Egan