existence. Its breeding range on the coast extends for hundreds of
miles in a northerly and southerly direction, but owing to the bird’s
very restricted nesting site it is narrowed in many places to a strip
of beach only a few yards wide. Fortunately legislation intervened and
removed the smaller plovers from the list of game birds, so that at
the present time the piping plover is fast becoming one of our common
summer residents again.
_Spring._--Compared to most of the waders, the piping plover has a
short and safe migration route. Moving along the coast where spring is
further advanced than in the interior of the country, and having to
pass over no large bodies of water on its way to its breeding ground,
the bird pushes northward early in the season, often arriving in New
England during the last days of March, the first of the shorebirds to
reach our beaches.
_Courtship._--In his notes A. C. Bent describes the courtship thus:
“I saw and heard the nuptial flight and song of this bird. He flew in
large circles or figure 8s low over the back beach near the marsh for
several minutes, giving constantly a peculiar twittering whistling
song.” Another entry in his notes under date, May 20, reads: “Saw
piping plover mating, two males following one female. They were running
around her in crouching attitude, with wings spread and trailing and
with tail spread in display, uttering whistling notes.”
I once saw a male bird come up behind a crouching female and stand at
full height close to her with his breast feathers puffed out and head
held high, his neck stretched upward so that it was long and slim,
the bird both in posture and shape resembling an upland plover. For
a minute or two he stood thus while his feet beat a rapid tatoo on
the sand. In this attitude of display he appeared bright colored and
conspicuous in contrast to the female and the band across his breast
(complete in his case) stood out sharply defined against the adjacent
snowy feathers.
_Nesting._--The typical nesting site of the piping plovers is the belt
of sand bordering lake or ocean well above high-water mark, where the
surface is becoming diversified and pebble strewn and wisps of beach
grass begin to grow. Here they lay their eggs, commonly with little
preparation for their reception other than a slight hollowing of the
light sand, but not infrequently they collect small stones, bits of
shell, or driftwood and line their nests with them or lay them near by.
The following quotations indicate differences in the appearance of
the nests. In a letter to Mr. Bent, Allen H. Wood describes a very
unusual nest. He says: “The nest was a hollow scooped in a mass of
sand which had been piled up to a height of nearly 10 inches. Whether
the birds formed the pile or not, I do not, of course, know, but a
very careful examination failed to show how else the pile could have
been formed.” A. C. Bent speaks in his notes of finding at Dartmouth,
Mass., “three nests containing four eggs each, all on a high, sandy and
pebbly beach in the heart of a tern colony. The nests were hollows in
the sand, profusely lined with broken pieces of white shell and were
quite conspicuous.” E. W. Hadeler found on the shore of Lake Erie, at
Painesville, Ohio, a paved nest. He says in his notes that there were
“four eggs, almost the same color as the ground and stones, laid in a
slight depression on some very small flat stones and around the nest
were stones of all shapes and sizes.” Philipp and Bowdish (1917) in
New Brunswick “found a small colony of breeding birds, five nests,
each containing four eggs, being located. The nests were on sandy
beach, some in the open, others among sparse clumps of beach grass.
They were slight hollows in the sand, some quite unlined, others with
a well-formed rim of bits of broken shell or slate.” In a letter to
Mr. Bent, Edward R. Ford calls attention to some birds nesting in an
unusual environment. He says:
At Dune Park, Ind., the piping plover, to the number of
five or six pairs, has taken advantage of the widening of
the beach (through the operations of a sand company which
has removed part of the dunes) and lays its eggs at a
considerable distance from the water’s edge. The old ridges
formed by the tramway beds, from which the rails have been,
for the most part, removed; the old cinder heaps, bits of
scrap iron and other odds and ends of human labor, with
here and there patches of vetch and coarse grass, seem well
suited to its requirements.
In common with some of its near relatives, the piping plover has the
habit of making additional hollows in the sand in the vicinity of the
hollow in which its eggs are laid. These hollows have been termed cock
nests and have been compared to the nests which the male of some of the
wrens builds while his mate is sitting.
My notes, taken on Cape Cod in the company of Charles A. Robbins in mid
April, refer to this subject:
After some 10 minutes, during which time the two birds
stood motionless on the sand facing the wind, they began to
move about, the male taking visible interest in the female
and following her as she walked away. They came to a place
back of the beach where stones lay sparsely scattered on
the dry sand and little bunches of beach grass and patches
of Hudsonia were growing. Here the male stopped at a spot
between two stones, lowered his breast to the ground and
kicked out alternately with his legs scratching the sand
from beneath him. Then moving off a little way he did the
same in another spot while the female came to the place
between the stones and continued the hollowing process
which he had begun. Nearly, if not quite, in time with
their rapidly moving legs, the birds uttered a series
of short, high-pitched whistles, all on the same note,
having the piping quality of their common call. When the
scratching stopped, the notes stopped.
During perhaps a quarter of an hour the birds continued
to scratch and pipe until several little hollows had been
begun and abandoned. The female, however, scratched for the
most part in the hollow between the stones, digging it out
to a depth of an inch. Soon this phase of activity passed
off and the birds began to feed.
During the hour the birds were under observation neither
one made its bobbing motion.
_Eggs._--[AUTHOR’S NOTE: Four eggs are the almost invariable rule with
the piping plover; rarely only three are laid in second sets, and I
have found one set of five. They are ovate to short ovate in shape and
have no gloss. The ground colors vary from “light buff” to “cartridge
buff” or buffy white. They are sparingly, but quite evenly, marked with
small spots, or fine dots, of blackish brown or black, and sometimes
with a few underlying spots of “pallid purplish gray.” They are almost
invisible on the sand or among small pebbles. The measurements of
71 eggs average 31.4 by 24.2 millimeters; the eggs showing the four
extremes measure =34.4= by 25.3, 31.8 by =26.4=, =29.2= by 23.8 and 30
by =23= millimeters.]
_Young._--Gayle Pickwell (1925) describes in detail the hatching of an
egg and ascertained that the young birds may leave the nest a few hours
later. He says: “It soon refused to remain in the nest. Finally, it
left, and while it was tottering insecurely away the parent bird came
running up with little chuckles of solicitude.”
Alexander G. Lawrence, of Winnipeg, Manitoba, says in his notes:
Careful search of the sand spit revealed a number of small
white moving points, which later search proved to be baby
piping plovers. While I was chasing one it tripped, fell on
its back, and lay as if stunned, deceiving me so completely
that I turned to get my camera to make a close-up picture
of the little fellow. No sooner had I moved away than he
sprang up and ran pell-mell over the sand, and the chase
commenced again.
C. A. Bobbins (1919) describes further the behavior of the young birds
thus:
Of course it frequently happens that there is no time for
concealment. Then the young birds attempt to escape by
running, the tiny legs working with surprising rapidity and
carrying them over the ground so swiftly and smoothly that
they looked like balls of down blowing before the wind.
Also, if their escape up the beach is cut off and they
continue to be closely pressed, they do not hesitate to
take to the water. Even those only a few hours out of the
shell swim well and navigate their frail craft, if not with
intelligence, at least in a direction away from the source
of danger.
_Plumages._--[AUTHOR’S NOTE: The downy young piping plover is sand
colored above. The crown, back, wings, rump, and thighs are variegated
with “cream buff,” “cartridge buff,” and grayish white, sprinkled
or peppered with browns; on the wings the color deepens almost to
“chamois.” The forehead is buffy white; there is a more or less
distinct V-shaped mark of dark brown in the center of the crown and
a circle of small brownish tips around the edge of it. The wings and
thighs are marked with brown spots. A white collar encircles the hind
neck, and the entire under parts are white. The juvenal plumage appears
first on the scapulars and sides of the breast, then on the remaining
underparts, back, and crown; the last parts to become feathered are the
throat, belly, and rump; then the wing quills appear, and lastly the
tail. In fresh juvenal plumage the feathers of the crown and mantle are
“drab gray” or “smoke gray,” broadly tipped with “pinkish buff,” giving
a decidedly pinkish tone at first; but these pink tips soon fade and
wear away, leaving a dull-gray crown and mantle, faintly mottled with
pale tints of buffy and dusky. The black bands on the forehead and neck
are entirely lacking.
The first winter plumage is acquired by a limited body molt early
in the fall and by wear and fading of much of the plumage that is
retained. It is like the adult winter except for the worn and faded
edgings on what juvenal feathers are retained, mainly wing coverts and
scapulars. A partial prenuptial molt early in the spring produces a
nuptial plumage which is practically adult.
Adults have a complete molt in late summer and fall--August to
October--and a partial prenuptial molt in late winter and spring,
mainly in March. In winter plumage the crown and mantle are “pale ecru
drab,” without the pale edgings, with no black frontal band, and with a
restricted brownish instead of black collar. The black frontal band and
the black collar, characteristic of the nuptial plumage, are usually
acquired in March; the extent of the black collar increases with age
and the complete collar probably indicates an old bird.]
_Food._--Arthur H. Howell (1924) says: “The food of this plover, as
indicated by the contents of four stomachs secured in Alabama, consists
principally of marine worms, fly larvae, and beetles.” E. H. Forbush
(1925) lists the following: “Insects, crustaceans, mollusks, and other
small marine animals and their eggs.”
The feeding habits of the piping plover as it hunts for food along our
beaches are characteristic. In marked contrast to the nervous haste of
the sanderling and the rapid darting about with lightning-like thrusts
of the bill of the smallest sandpipers, the behavior of the plover
is leisurely, and as they pick up food from the sand the movements
of the head are deliberate. Three or four may sweep down the beach
together, close to the sand, but when they alight, after a moment of
stillness, they separate, each bird running a little way, isolating
itself from its companions (another point of difference from the
sanderling, etc., which in migration tend to keep close in a flock
while feeding). Generally they begin at once to hunt for food. They
run a short distance, then pause and stare at the sand with neck a
little outstretched, head tilted a bit to one side, perhaps looking for
a movement to show where food is, for often, leaning farther forward,
they pick something from the sand. As they run over the beach--a run
and a pause, another run and another scrutinizing pause, often changing
direction to catch up a bit of food--the birds suggest very strongly a
robin feeding on a lawn and the resemblance is strengthened when the
plover seizes a 3-inch-long worm and drags it from beneath the sand,
pulling slowly and carefully lest it break, and swallows it whole.
_Behavior._--Their actions while feeding are apparently identical with
those of the semipalmated plover, and the flight of the two birds is
similar if not exactly the same. Their flight is wilder than that of
the sanderling, for example, which drives steadily along; they twist
and turn more often and tilt from one side to the other, giving the
impression of extreme swiftness and agility.
Descriptions of the action of the sitting bird when disturbed differ
very little. The bird is invariably wary and steals off before the
intruder comes near, leaving him in doubt as to the existence of
a nest. After the eggs are hatched, however, their actions change
completely, and the parents display the utmost concern for the safety
of their young. In the following quotation from his notes, E. H.
Forbush describes graphically this behavior, and also shows that even
in the early days of the young bird’s life the parents do not feed
them. Mr. Forbush says:
A colony of piping plovers on the same beach had been much
reduced in numbers but the behavior of one pair showed
that they had young on the beach. We saw one plover and
then another fluttering along the ground like young or
crippled birds. Their actions might deceive a novice, but
by watching them with a glass, we soon saw that they were
adult birds. They threw themselves on the ground, breast
downward, and, drooping the flight feathers or primaries,
raised and agitated the shorter secondaries, until the
motion resembled the fluttering pinions of young or wounded
birds, meantime pushing themselves along over the sand
with their feet. As the wings were not spread, the long
primary quills were not noticeable, and so the imitation
of the struggles of a helpless bird was almost perfect.
Immediately we began a careful search for the nest, looking
in all the usual hiding places in or under the tufts of
beach grass, but no nest could we find. As the old birds
continued their plaintive cries and circled about, we
extended our search, expecting to find some half-grown
young flattened out somewhere on the beach. Finally, by
hunting over the sand we found on the open beach, a nest
exactly like that of the least tern. A few little pebbles
had been grouped in a slight hollow, and there, partly
beside and partly on the pebbles, lay three lovely little
downy chicks and one egg. We attempted to photograph the
parents, but they would not come to the young; and, as the
little ones had already begun to run, about, we sunk an old
barrel in the beach, and put them and the egg in it, that
we might know where to find them on the morrow.
The day was foggy and cold, and during the night a
thunderstorm drenched the earth; but the next morning the
egg had disappeared, and four lively youngsters were
running around in our barrel. They were now so active, that
if one were liberated it would be rather difficult to catch
it, while if hidden, it would be almost impossible to find
it.
We kept them there two days, until we made sure that the
parents never fed them. They brooded them quite constantly,
but brought no food whatever, and we made certain that the
young were able and willing to find their own food within
24 hours after they were out of the shell. It was seen that
unless they were liberated from the barrel they would soon
starve to death.
C. A. Bobbins (1919) in a study of a colony of piping plovers breeding
in Massachusetts lays stress on the communal feeling that he noted in
the birds. He says that the feeling--
manifests itself in a marked degree; as when, at a threat
of danger, more than two adults join in driving a single
brood up the beach and into the safety which the concealing
color of the dry sand furnishes.
It is shown again by the number of old birds that attempt
to distract attention from the same brood or even from a
detached individual by feigning; creeping off with wings
outstretched and fluttering, tail fanned and dragging or,
if the need requires more extreme measures, collapsing
utterly a short distance away as if completely exhausted.
_Voice._--The piping plover’s home is blue and gray and white; on one
side is the long line of the horizon over a large lake or the sea, on
the other the long line of the sand hills. It is a land the same the
world over, wherever the sea meets the white, shifting sand. The sea
slides back and forth over the hard smooth wet shining beach; above the
reach of the tide is the dry, pale gray, pebbly upper beach with here
and there a few strands of beach grass growing in it, and higher up are
the dunes which mark on the land side the boundary of the plover’s home.
Walk along the water’s edge and, although the sea may be pounding on
the shore and a northerly gale howling about our ears, we shall hear
the plover’s voice; a soft musical moan, we can not tell from where,
but clear and distinct above the sound of waves and wind. The note has
a ventriloquial quality and it is often our first intimation that a
piping plover is near, for the soft gray of the bird’s plumage matches
the sandy background, whereas the note is pervasive and attracts our
attention by its strangeness.
Aretas A. Saunders sends me the following summary of this plover’s
notes. He says:
The commonest call I have noted is the one rendered in the
books as _peep-lo_. It is lower pitched than most of the
shore-bird voices, a clear melodious whistle, and generally
rendered _peep peep peeplo_. The _peep_ is usually a
tone or a tone and a half higher pitched than the _lo_
and I have one record where it is three tones and a half
higher. I have one or two records where the second note
slurs upward, the effect like _peep-loay_ and suggesting
the _peeawee_ of the wood pewee. Another sort of note I
have several records of I do not find described in books.
This is a series of short sweet notes, more rapid than the
others, nine or ten notes in a series. They are either all
on the same pitch, or grading slightly downward in pitch
toward the end, and they are sometimes followed by the
peep-lo notes, at least in flight.
J. T. Nichols says in his notes:
When nesting the piping plover is rather noisy. The thought
of its plaintive, rather mellow whistled notes, _queep_,
_queep_, _queeplo_, etc., which perhaps have an analogy
with song, takes me back to the sand dunes of Cape Cod
standing in the dazzling sunshine, where I first became
familiar with this species a number of years ago. At other
times of year piping plover are rather silent. Their
whistled flight note _hee-hu_, with falling inflection at
the end, is not loud or striking, and suggests that of the
semipalmated plover, reversed.
Gayle Pickwell (1925) in a study of the breeding habits “on a strip of
sandy beach at Capital Lake near Lincoln” [Nebraska] says:
The most interesting thing about the piping plovers was
their activities when one was near the nest. As an observer
approached the nest he would be met by one of the plovers
dropping down out of nowhere, uttering its sharp _kee-wee,
kee-wee_ and striving its utmost to lead one away. It would
then run briskly across the sand and disappear suddenly
from sight when it stopped to crouch down and utter its
long-drawn _whooaah, whooaah_.
The variety of their cries and calls was amazing.
At almost any period, while we were in the neighborhood,
one of the birds could be observed flying here and there
with slow, wide wing beats, uttering a rapid _kuk, kuk,
kuk, kuk_. It would shortly alight and wind it up with a
long-drawn, weird _whooaah, whooaah_ that seemed to come
from nowhere in particular. The distress cries while one
was near the nest were confined chiefly to a sharp _kee-ah,
kee-ah_. The reason for their name of “piping” became very
apparent at such times.
The _kuk_ mentioned by Mr. Pickwell is seemingly analogous to a
common note which the semipalmated plovers use as they carry on their
harmless running flights along the beach--a sort of rattling cackle of
short notes somewhat suggesting the call of the red crossbill. These
utterances are evidently expressions of a heightening in the emotional
state of these closely related plovers.
John A. Farley (1919) describes a mating song accompanying courting
activities. He says:
I noticed a group of three, two of which chased each
other around just like two robins fighting over a female.
Some flew around rather low over the beach (some of them
rather close to me), in apparent sexual excitement, and
uttered notes while on the wing. These were different from
the usual mellow, rather low notes which the birds were
uttering more or less all the time while on the sand. Their
notes on the wing were higher in tone and rather long drawn
out, and mixed in with them were some little chuckles. The
whole might be described as some sort of a mating song.
_Field marks._--J. T. Nichols says in substance in his notes that the
bird--
may be recognized by its exceedingly pale colors which
nearly match the dry sand of the beach above high-water
mark. The white in the wing shows so little contrast to
the general tone of the plumage that, although in flight
a pattern on the wing is visible, it Is very faintly
indicated. A flying sanderling sometimes appears to be
about the same color, but has bolder wing pattern than the
plover.
The bobbing motion characteristic of several of the plovers is a
common habit of the piping plover. This is a single hitching motion by
which the body is tilted up and down on the legs as a fulcrum. It is
apparently identical with the bob of the semipalmated plover and is
made frequently as the birds stand about on the beach.
_Enemies._--The piping plover is shielded from its enemies by
remarkable protective coloration which renders the bird nearly
invisible as it stands motionless on the gray sand, especially when
among scattered stones. The eggs, the young, and the adult bird are
alike protected, so now that man is no longer its deadly enemy there is
little to check the species from repopulating its breeding haunts in
its former numbers.
E. Beaupre speaks in his notes of a local condition in eastern Ontario.
He says: “Owing to the destructive work of crows [in eating the
plover’s eggs] some are obliged to lay a second clutch, and this no
doubt accounts for some of the nests containing fresh eggs in June.”
_Fall._--The piping plover moves southward soon after its nesting
activities are over, following the habit of its relatives, the
Limicolae which breed during the short summer about the Arctic Circle.
Early departure from its nesting ground is not imperative in the case
of this southerly breeding bird, but the habit is undoubtedly of long
standing and dates back to the time when the species bred close to the
edge of the glacial ice field and summer passed quickly.
_Winter._--W. E. D. Scott (1892), speaking of the bird in Jamaica
on its winter quarters, says: “In October, 1887, piping plover were
abundant among the lagoons and mangrove swamps at the Palisades;
they moved about in large flocks which, when once alighted on the
shell-bestrewn beaches, it was impossible to detect.”
We leave the little plover covered by the helmet of invisibility.
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--Eastern North America and the West Indies.