By Todd Pover, Beach Nesting Bird Project Manager and Stephanie Egger, Wildlife Biologist
The Bahamas piping plover survey tally board in the “central command” room at Schooner Bay Institute.
An integral part of this Bahamas trip entailed surveying several sites not previous covered on Abaco and revisiting some sites not checked since the 2011 International Piping Plover Census. Although we didn’t find large concentrations of piping plovers at any one new site, we did make some noteworthy discoveries.
One of the most exciting find was the resight of a piping plover that was banded on the breeding grounds last summer in Massachusetts as part of a flight behavior study. New Jersey also participated in this research and we briefly thought it might be one of the birds banded in our home state – but it turned out that it was banded (and nested) on Chapin Beach, Cape Cod and is wintering at Schooner Bay, Abaco (amongst 15 other piping plovers found on our survey). Continue reading “BAHAMAS PIPING PLOVER PROJECT”
By Todd Pover, Beach Nesting Bird Project Manager and Stephanie Egger, Wildlife Biologist
Meeting with Amy Roberts Primary School and Friends of the Environment
Today was our first official work day on Abaco, Bahamas as we spent ALL of yesterday traveling. But, today’s lineup included a meeting with our sister school, Amy Roberts Primary School on Green Turtle Cay, presenting a program to children in grades 3-6, a field visit to the tidal flats with Friends of the Environment and Loggerhead Productions, filming with Loggerhead Productions, and finally an informal meeting with the some bonefishermen and Friends of the Environment on tidal flat conservation.
Although we accomplished a lot in one day, the majority of the day was focused on
Todd Pover, CWFNJ, presenting at Amy Roberts Primary School
working with the school teachers and children. We had a great morning presenting to the students and engaging them in discussions on the different aspects of the piping plover on the their breeding grounds in the U.S. and the wintering grounds in the Bahamas and demonstrating how important the Bahamas is to the life cycle of the piping plover. The teachers were very enthusiastic about incorporating the piping plover into the children’s curriculum and the sister school program. The children in grades 3 and 4 at Amy Roberts will be part of a sister school program with an elementary school back at home in Ocean City, New Jersey. The sister school program includes in-school presentations from CWFNJ to both of these schools, a poster/interpretive sign project, a field trip to observe piping plovers, and communication between the teachers and the students using social media and other means to discuss not only piping plovers, but just the similarities and differences in our respective cultures.
Stephanie Egger, CWFNJ, and a student at Amy Roberts Primary School
The day started out with rough seas as we made a ferry crossing from mainland Abaco to Green Turtle Cay, but it was smooth sailing for our project the rest of the day. We are feeling very enthusiastic about the project, in part because of the warm welcome we have received here. Now we see why our plovers like the Bahamas so much:)
