What's with the Plovers? (pronounced - pluhv-er)

Right now, along the eastern American coastline, beaches are being roped off and sometimes closed in order to allow the piping plovers to lay their eggs and fledge their young. These are really cute little birds. They weigh less than 2 ounces (42-64 grams) when fully grown. But what's the big deal? How can these little guys close so many beaches? Lets look at their life-cycle needs and the history of their numbers. Plovers are migratory birds. They spend their winters in the coastal areas of the southern U.S., Mexico, the Caribbean Islands, and the Bahamas and their summers on the Atlantic coast. They used to be plentiful (nineteenth century) but apparently the demand for their little feathers for ladies' hats caused them to be hunted and their population decimated.

Now, worldwide, plovers are found in only two locations ... Michigan and the Eastern seaboard of the United States. They are often counted when they are nesting. So, their count is often in how many pairs have been found on a beach.

Atlantic coast totals of nesting pairs 1986 790 1988 886 1990 980 1992 1026 1994 1150 1996 1364 1998 1379 2000 1437 2002 1690 2004 1658 2006 1749 2008 1849 2010 1782 2012 1759

1. Can you tell from the chart on the previous page if the population of piping plovers is increasing quickly enough for plovers to not become extinct?

2. I would think that two nesting piping plovers would need to produce 2 viable chicks in order to not decrease their overall numbers. Do you think that is true? Why or why not?

3. If the average birthrate of plovers is 1.19 fledgling chicks per nest, (females usually lay 4 eggs), what does that mean? ... one chick with an extra leg? Please explain.

For some reason one of the most successful breeding places in Massachusetts has become the heavily populated and very urban Revere Beach. Residence and park service employees have been counting the nesting pairs, building enclosures that only the plovers can walk through, and only barely containing their excitement that their beach is successful at boosting the plover's population.

August 31, 2007 2 piping plovers were found on Revere beach July 10, 2008 3 chicks born on Revere Beach to one pair July 3, 2012 18 piping plovers were nesting on Revere Beach In 2013 13 nesting pairs on Revere and Winthrop Beaches In 2014 15 nesting pairs on Revere and Winthrop beaches This year, 2015 16 plover pairs on Revere Beach

4. In 2012 when the number of plovers was 18, does it seem to you that the numbers of plovers

decreased in 2013? Please explain.

5. What factors of a heavily human-populated beach might make that nesting sight unsuitable for plovers?

6. What factors of a heavily human-populated beach might make that nesting sight suitable and successful for plovers?

7. I wondered if plovers only breed for one year. I couldn't find that information. But I did find that the average life span of a plover is 168 months. I was surprised. Express 168 months in years.

8. Given their average life expectancy, how many plover chicks might you expect from 1 nesting pair over their lifetime?

9. Create a Revere Beach scatter plot and predict how many plovers might be on the beach next year.

10. Predict how many plovers might be on Revere Beach next year and for the following several years. Use tables, graphs or equations to explain or support your prediction.

0  

4  

8  

12  

16  

20  

24  

28  

32  

36  

40  

2006   2008   2010   2012   2014   2016   2018   2020  

Nesting  pairs  

Nesting  plover  pairs  through  the  years  at  Revere  Beach  

This is a bumper sticker that is sold in beach communities where residents are disgruntled about beaches being closed so that plovers can nest and fledge their young.

I guess that the implication is that if you eat plovers instead of saving them then people would have unrestricted use of beaches. One author stated that you would need to use the meat of 5 piping plovers to create a respectable Plover McNugget. I'm thinking that this is pretty sick humor.

11. So here is a little more sick humor ... If there are only 1,700 piping plover pairs in the world, how many McNuggets could you make if you decimated the entire piping plovers population? Show your work.

Source: http://masskiting.com/piping-plovers http://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/Blues/2013/06/05/19660-Piping-Plovers-Close-Yet-Another-Beach http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/articles/2011/08/14/cape_beach_battle_the_curious_case_of_the_piping_plover/?page=full http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piping_plover http://www.fws.gov/northeast/pipingplover/pdf/Abundance&Productivity2010Update.pdf http://www.fws.gov/northeast/pipingplover/preliminary2011 20March2012 for AC website.pdf http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Charadrius_melodus/ http://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/Blues/2013/06/05/19660-Piping-Plovers-Close-Yet-Another-Beach http://www.fws.gov/northeast/endangered/PDF/Piping_Plover_five_year_review_and_summary.pdf http://www.bioone.org/doi/pdf/10.1675/063.032.0107

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