May 21, 2017 - Piping and Snowy Plovers

During January and February of this year, Diana and I stayed on St. George Island, Florida. The island’s beaches are the winter home for both Piping Plovers and Snowy Plovers. This is a Piping Plover, considered to be an endangered species. Because of their critical status, researchers tag these birds to keep track of them. Notice the three bands on this bird’s left leg and the two bands and a yellow flag on the right leg. This is the only Piping Plover I saw during our stay on the island.

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I saw several Snowy Plovers on St. George Island. They are considered a threatened species. This one hasn’t been banded yet.

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This Snowy Plover has three bands on its right leg and one blue band on its left leg. Each pattern of bands is meaningful and tells a researcher some information about that particular bird.

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This Snowy has red, yellow, and green bands. It also has an aluminum band with some characters stamped on it.

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Here’s another Snowy Plover with an aluminum band plus two black bands and an orange one. Maybe it was banded on Halloween (just kidding.)

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Aluminum bands seem to be in fashion. I like this photo because the bird posed next to a colorful piece of shell.

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Here’s another unbanded Snowy Plover.

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In addition to the two blue bands and a black one, I’m pretty sure I see an aluminum band as well.

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Looks like this one still needs to be banded.

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All the previous birds were seen on February 7, 2017, at St. George Island State Park. On February 23, two days before we were leaving Florida, I saw several more Snowy Plovers. They were on the west end of the island, not in the park. Because it was later in the year, these birds were starting to get their breeding plumage. Notice this bird is darker brown than the birds in the previous photos. It also has darker black spots.

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This was also taken on February 23 and it looks like these two have formed a pair bond. Neither of them seem to be banded.

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