Plight of the Plovers by Ken _Gilliland

Poser • World Events/Social Commentary • posted on Nov 03, 2009

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Description

Adult Snowy Plovers sometimes feign injury to distract intruders away from nests or chicks. Their nests frequently are destroyed by predators, people, dogs and off-road vehicles. They breed in loose colonies. Males construct a shallow scrape nest on open, bare ground, sometimes near a clump of grass or piece of driftwood. The nest is lined with shell fragments and other bits of debris. Adult Snowy Plovers usually run when approached by humans or predators, but may fly if startled. The Pacific Coast population (Charadrius alexandrinus nivosus) has been listed as threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since 1973. This plover is a Bird Species of Special Concern in California. Snowy plovers were listed as endangered under Washington Department of Game Policy No. 402 in 1981, and as threatened by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission in 1975. The threatened status in Oregon was reaffirmed in 1989 under the Oregon Endangered Species Act. Each summer, breeding populations of the Western Snowy Plovers are monitored by State Parks, Audubon chapters, PRBO Conservation Science, Department of Defense, and many others. Hundreds of volunteers, including many Audubon members, have assisted with nesting season data collection and community outreach and restoration. In California, protection efforts for breeding birds which have halted the decline documented in the 1980s can be attributed to habitat restoration, predator management, leash laws, symbolic fencing, and controlled off-road vehicle use. Despite some local success stories, plovers remain at risk from habitat loss, predation, and disturbance, and are still absent from many locations in their historic range. Often times we do things without thinking things through (such as ignoring a leash law) and how something that seems harmless is quite the opposite. Everything we do affects something else in our world. "In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are consequences" -Robert Ignersoll Rendered in Poser 8 with minor postwork. Models: M4,V4, M Dog (DAZ), Waves at the Beach (Nerd3d) Snowy Plover from Shorebirds v3 (me)