Piping Plover Recovery Program

Piping plovers are small, stubby-billed Endangered shorebirds that nest and feed along gravel beaches. They face a number of threats including high rates of predation and damage to their nesting and feeding habitat. We are working with landowners across east-central and southern Alberta to improve habitat and promote awareness of the plight of the piping plover. Each year, we also conduct piping plover counts on key breeding lakes that allow us to monitor population numbers and distribution, and help us guide habitat improvement activities. We surveyed 35 waterbodies and found 75 adults on 16 lakes, with ten or more adults on three of these lakes. We detected one breeding pair on the gravel nesting area we created in 2015, the second consecutive year breeding activity has been recorded on this habitat. We improved over 5 km of shoreline habitat through the implementation of seasonal grazing to reduce the encroachment of vegetation that impairs this habitat for plovers. Since large-scale recovery efforts began in 2002, we have improved over 58 km of shoreline habitat, with the majority of “critical” piping plover habitat being protected or improved through fencing.

Partnerships

Alberta Environment and Parks, Cooperating landownersm, Department of National Defence, Government of Canada

Annual Summaries

We are working hard to upload all past summaries. If there is a report you would like to see that isn't presently here, please email info@ab-conservation.com