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The piping plover is a small shorebird approximately seven inches long.
It can be recognized by a single black neck band, a short, stout bill,
pale underparts and orange legs. The piping plover is listed as threatened
on both the federal
and South Dakota state threatened or endangered species lists.
 Piping
plovers nest primarily on unvegetated sandy islands on the Missouri River
in South Dakota. The male makes a shallow scrape in the sand that both
members of the pair line with small shells or pebbles. The female usually
lays four eggs which both the male and the female help to incubate. After
about 28 days of incubation, the eggs hatch within hours of each other.
The young leave the nest after only hours, although they will stay near
the nest for several days unless disturbed. They can forage for themselves
almost immediately, but remain with their parents for several weeks.
Temperatures on the sandy islands where piping plovers live can be
extreme, and parents shield the chicks from extreme heat or cold for about
three weeks. The young can fly after about 27 days.
Nest success of piping plovers was probably always variable, since
nests are susceptible to storms, high water events, and predators.
However, hunting, primarily for the millinery (hat) trade in the late
1800’s precipitated the species' decline. In the 1930’s, when dams were
built on the Missouri River and channelization began, the water regime
changed so that nests were flooded much more frequently during the nesting
season. Islands eroded but since the river no longer carries a large
sediment load, new islands are not created. Without periodic high water
flows common before the dams, islands are rarely scoured of vegetation, so
they become unsuitable for the piping plover, which requires bare sand or
gravel beaches for nesting.
The effects of high water levels in 1996-1997 led to an increase in
appropriate nesting habitat in South Dakota and the piping plover population
and fledge
ratio (the number of young per adult pair that survives to be
able to fly) have shown a corresponding increase. As the islands created
in that flood event become degraded however, the piping plover population
is likely to show a corresponding decrease in numbers.
References:
Haig, S.M. 1992. Piping Plover. The Birds of North America, No. 2 (A.
Poole, P. Stettenheim, & F. Gill, eds). Philadelphia: The Academy of
Natural Sciences; Washington DC: The American Ornithologists’ Union.
USFWS Website. Accessed January 14, 2004. http://www.fws.gov/.
USFWS. 1988. Great Lakes and Northern Great Plains Piping Plover
Recovery Plan. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Twin Cities, MN. 160
pp.
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