Piping Plover Survival Network

The piping plover survival network is a group of volunteers who are willing to donate some “bird watching time” to collect the data needed to estimate piping plover survival on the wintering area. If you are skilled birdwatcher and are interested in helping, the survival network wants you!

Recovery of the piping plover from its threatened status will require increasing plover numbers. Like all wild animal populations, plover populations may respond to increasing reproductive rates and/or increasing survival rates. While actions needed to increase reproduction are well understood and have been implemented throughout the species’ range, the factors affecting survival are not well understood. In fact, only a few survival estimates exist, and these are for small breeding populations. The first step toward increasing survival rates is to estimate these rates over broad portions of the species range. The first task of the Piping Plover Survival Network is to make such an estimate for much or all of the species winter range.

To determine plover survival rates on wintering grounds throughout the US and Mexico.
Compare survival rates of plovers that winter in different coastal regions.
Compare the survival rates of plovers that winter in areas with different management regimes (i.e. public, private, and preserve).
Compare winter survival rates among different breeding populations.

All you need to do to be a member of the network is to commit to systematically surveying one or more beaches inhabited by wintering piping plovers (NC to the Yucatan Peninsula) between August and April ideally at least once a month, record specific data on banded and unbanded plovers and periodically email the data in an excel file to plover@exchange.vt.edu.

The data will be used to estimate survival as stated in the goals above. These estimates will be provided to land managers to help them focus their piping plover conservation efforts, and also will be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Thus, by observing plovers on the beach, you can directly help both piping plover conservation and the advancement of science. What could be more fun?

For more information please see the Piping Plover Survival Network protocol and data sheets or contact:

Daniel H. Catlin
Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences
134 Cheatham Hall
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Ph: 540-231-1692
Email: plover@exchange.vt.edu