June 2
Found in similar habitats to the sandpipers, plovers are another shorebird.
For us, the star of the plover show is the Piping Plover. It is estimated that there are less than 150 of these birds in Alberta. We were lucky to see six on the May long weekend. We went to a lake that had over 5000 shorebirds on the May long weekend last year. When we arrived on Saturday, we got our our scope and all we could find were a few large shorebirds like avocets and willets. But we decided to walk the shore anyways. Piping plovers like alkaline lakes with gravel beaches for nesting and mudflats for eating. That means walking along soft muddy shores.
After about 1/2 hour we came across two small shorebirds. And they were Piping Plovers! We managed to get a few good shots before they flew away. We only saw one other small shorebird that day.
On Saturday, we returned. We found a few shorebirds close to our parking spot and then decided to hike back to where we had seen the piping plovers before. This time we didn’t have to walk too far before two Piping Plovers flew up and landed right in front of us. We sat down where we were on the beach and were treated to a spectacular show. The two were joined by three others. First, the dominant male puffed up his feathers and chased the other four birds away. Then he went up onto the gravel beach and started scraping away a nest. Connor explained to me that the males birds arrive on site first and prepare multiple nests to present to potential mates. In between fighting and nest building, the plover would return to the beach to feast on the many flies covering the sand. It was really special to sit down in the middle of all of this activity.
It rained all day Sunday so we didn’t walk the beach, On Monday we returned and found the plovers strung out along the very soggy shore. Connor got down and dirty to get some more shots but I was content with the ones I had.I have been watching ebird and no one is reporting the large flocks of last year. Just as well. I wasn’t looking forward to scoping a thousand birds hoping to see a couple of plovers.
I have attached a link to a wiki article on alkaline lakes. We see these lakes and sloughs on the prairies surrounded by white salt flats. I didn’t realize that these lakes are actually much more prolific than less alkaline lakes. I thought the opposite.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soda_lake
Stay well !
