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Piping plover sister school project

Thursday, December 5th, 2013
Dispatch from Green Turtle Cay, Abaco, The Bahamas
Sister School students of Amy Robert Primary School

Sister School students of Amy Roberts Primary School, Abaco, The Bahamas, working hard on their Piping Plover Unit!

The Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ continues to be extremely excited about our sister school project which links a school on Green Turtle Cay in Abaco, The Bahamas and one in Ocean City, New Jersey, USA through piping plover conservation. We particularly like how it is shaping up to be a multi-disciplinary educational initiative. Below is a report we received last week from Jan Russell, the project teacher from the Amy Roberts Primary School on Green Turtle Cay:

Today was the first official in-class activity to start the Joint Piping Plover Unit.  On Monday the students were placed in groups based upon their strengths and identified cooperation skills. The first activity included a review of the Power Point presentation presented by Todd Pover and Stephanie Egger of CWFNJ when they visited us on November 5, 2013.  As each slide was presented, each group recorded a comment or question on a large sheet of poster paper.  The comments and questions will be used to develop our research direction and our final product choices. (more…)

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Plovers in Paradise

Monday, November 11th, 2013

The Bahamas Blog – Trip 1, Day 7

By Todd Pover, Beach Nesting Bird Project Manager and  Stephanie Egger, Wildlife Biologist

The Bahamas Flag.

The Bahamas Flag.

Those of us who study and work with piping plovers on the breeding grounds are pretty attached to “our” plovers. In truth, piping plovers spend more than half of their time in migration or on their wintering grounds, so for our Atlantic Coast population they are as much birds of the Bahamas as they are of the U.S. and Canada.

Shorebirds are not necessarily on the radar in the Bahamas, as much as more iconic birds like the flamingo or Bahama Parrot, but the public is slowly becoming more aware of them. A major part of our project is to elevate local awareness of piping plovers and the important role the Bahamas plays in their long-term survival.

To this end, we have developed a number of products and strategies to achieve this goal: a postcard, decal, in-school programs, sister school program, public presentations, and traditional and social media exposure. Lastly, we are producing a short video about the piping plover in the Bahamas that will be shown to students, the public, and visitors. (more…)

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Plovers in Paradise

Sunday, November 10th, 2013

The Bahamas Blog – Trip 1, Day 6

By Todd Pover, Beach Nesting Bird Project Manager and Stephanie Egger, Wildlife Biologist

Piping Plovers on exposed limestone shore in the Bahamas

Piping Plovers on exposed limestone shore in the Bahamas.

Today was a down day from a field research perspective, a chance to recharge. That said, our minds were still working – we are already thinking about what’s next for the project and planning our return trip early next year.

As we knew coming in, and now we both know firsthand, logistics are the toughest part of piping plover research here in the Bahamas. With hundreds of islands, cays, flats, and miles of shoreline to survey, many of them inaccessible, just getting to some of the sites is half the battle. Throw in unfavorable weather issues (i.e. wind and rain), a van or boat that doesn’t start, a survey that takes much longer to complete than anticipated…and well you get the picture.

And as we previously mentioned, piping plovers use different types of habitat here in the Bahamas and it is highly tide dependent – it is critical to be at the tidal flats at low tide, otherwise there are no flats or birds to see. Likewise, you need to be at roost locations at mid or high tide or all you’ll see are tracks in the sand to tease you. (more…)

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Plovers in Paradise

Saturday, November 9th, 2013

The Bahamas Blog – Trip 1, Day 5

By Todd Pover, Beach Nesting Bird Project Manager and  Stephanie Egger, Wildlife Biologist

Piping Plovers Bahamas_General Presentation

CWFNJ’s presentation at Friends of the Environment to the local Abaconian community on November 7, 2013.

Last night we presented for the Abaconian community at Friends of the Environment’s office on the international link of piping plovers between the Bahamas and the United States, draft results from the 2011 International Piping Plover Census, and the importance of the Bahamas to piping plovers. We had a decent turnout including David Knowles from the Bahamas National Trust and a writer from the local Abaco newspaper.  We spoke at length with Abaco’s premier birder, Woody Bracey, who has helped with on the ground coordination for piping plover surveys over the last several years.  We hope to work with Woody and other Abaconians to develop a citizen scientist network to survey sites that we have been unable to get to because of time or logistics (i.e. tide cycle, transportation to the site) and to have the network securely in place for the 2016 International Census. (more…)

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Plovers in Paradise

Thursday, November 7th, 2013

The Bahamas Blog – Trip 1, Day 4

By Todd Pover, Beach Nesting Bird Project Manager and Stephanie Egger, Wildlife Biologist

No piping plovers, but plenty of rain!

No piping plovers, but plenty of rain!

Today was a reality check – a reminder that not every day of the project can be a highlight reel. There was work from other projects to catch up on. We had a public presentation in the evening on the importance of the Bahamas for piping plovers and we had to finish prepping for that. The van needed to be gassed up and the biologists need fuel too so a trip to the grocery store was in order. And finally, it was pouring rain all morning.

Luckily, the sun peaked out mid-day, so we headed to Treasure Cay, a popular planned community and resort north of Marsh Harbor. On the surface the long beautiful crescent beach provided perfectly suitable habitat for piping plovers. However, expectations were not particularly high for a sighting because there is not a well established history of plovers at the site. And as it turned out, no piping plovers were found today. But determining both where birds are and aren’t present is an equally important part of the scientific and conservation process. (more…)

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