north to Saskatchewan (Big Stick Lake and Quill Lake); Manitoba (Birch
Island in Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipeg); Michigan (Big Beaver Island
and Charity Island); Ontario (Toronto and Brighton); Quebec (probably
Natashquan); and probably Newfoundland (Stephenville Crossing, St.
George Bay). East to probably Newfoundland (Stephenville); the Magdalen
Islands; Prince Edward Island (North River); Nova Scotia (Sable
Island and Yarmouth); Massachusetts (Ipswich, Monomoy Island, and
Marthas Vineyard); New York (Gardiners Island and Shelter Island); New
Jersey (Barnegat Inlet, Beach Haven, Sea Isle City, and probably Cape
May); Maryland (probably Ocean City); Virginia (Chincoteague Island,
Cobb Island, and Cape Charles); and North Carolina (Pea Island and
Beaufort). South to North Carolina (Beaufort); northern Pennsylvania
(Erie); northern Ohio (Painesville, Cleveland, Oberlin, and Sandusky);
northern Indiana (Millers); northern Illinois (Waukegan); southern
Wisconsin (Milwaukee and Lake Koshkonong); and Nebraska (Lincoln,
Dannebrog, and Doss). West to Nebraska (Goss); South Dakota (Miner
County); North Dakota (Stump Lake, Minnewauken, and Kenmare); and
southern Saskatchewan (Big Stick Lake).
There are many gaps in the range above outlined and the species also
has been extirpated from parts of its breeding grounds.
_Winter range._--Almost entirely the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts of
the United States. North to southern Texas (Padre Island, Aransas River
and High Island); Louisiana (Vermilion Bay); Alabama (Petit Bois Island
and Dauphin Island); and Georgia (Savannah). East to Georgia (Savannah
and Darien); eastern Florida (Amelia Island, Mayport, St. Augustine,
Sebastian, and Miami); probably the Bahama Islands (Eleuthera and Great
Inagua); and probably rarely Porto Rico. South to probably rarely Port
Rico; Cuba (Matanzas and Habana); southern and western Florida (Cape
Sable, Key West, Sanibel Island, Fort Myers; mouth of the Withlacoochee
River, and probably Pensacola); and southern Texas (Padre Island). West
to southern Texas (Padre Island). The species has been detected in
winter occasionally in Bermuda.
_Spring migration._--Early dates of spring arrival are: South Carolina,
Frogmore, March 20; North Carolina, Pea Island, April 7; District of
Columbia, Washington, March 25; Pennsylvania, Erie, April 16; New York,
Shinnecock, March 24, Montauk Point, April 1, and Gardiners Island,
April 7; Rhode Island, Newport, March 24; Massachusetts, Marthas
Vineyard, March 18, Dennis, March 24, and Nantucket, March 26; Nova
Scotia, April 24; Illinois, Colona, April 9, and De Kalb, April 18;
Indiana, Waterloo, April 14, and Frankfort, April 15; Ohio, Lakeside,
April 7, and Oberlin, April 15; Michigan, Port Sanilac, April 15,
Ottawa Beach, April 23, and Detroit, April 26; Ontario, Point Pelee,
April 10, Listowel, May 1, and Toronto, May 8; Iowa, German Center,
April 10; Wisconsin, Whitewater, April 29, and Elkhorn, May 13;
Minnesota, Waseca, May 11, and Heron Lake, May 11; Kansas, Lawrence,
April 27, McPherson, May 3, and Topeka, May 7; Nebraska, Lincoln,
April 26, Gibbon, May 4, Nebraska City, May 8, and Doss, May 11; South
Dakota, Sioux Falls, May 5, and Vermilion, May 8; North Dakota,
Harrisburg, May 23, and St. Thomas, May 29; Manitoba, Shoal Lake, May
15, and Killarney, May 25; and Saskatchewan, Indian Head, May 14,
Qu’Appelle, May 23, and Lake Johnston, May 23.
Late dates of spring departure are: Florida, Amelia Island, April 20,
Daytona Beach, May 1, and Peninsula Point, May 11; and South Carolina,
Sullivans Island, May 11, and Mount Pleasant, May 18.
_Fall migration._--Early dates of arrival in the fall are: Texas,
Rockport, August 12, and St. Joseph Island, August 14; Mississippi,
Bay St. Louis, August 29; South Carolina, Mount Pleasant, August 2;
Florida, New Smyrna, July 15, Fernandina, August 3, and Daytona, August
10; and Alabama, Dauphin Island, August 16.
Late dates of fall departure are: Manitoba, Shoal Lake, September 7;
South Dakota, Forestburg, September 24; Nebraska, Bellwood, September
19, and Doss, September 24; Iowa, Grinnell, October 28; Ontario,
Point Pelee, September 22; Michigan, Newbury, September 18; Ohio,
Cleveland, September 24, Painesville, September 26, and Port Clinton,
September 28; Indiana, La Fayette, September 18; Prince Edward Island,
North River, October 20; Nova Scotia, Pictou, October 8; Vermont,
Bennington, October 2; Massachusetts, Lynn, October 3, Dennis, October
12, and Boston, October 26; Rhode Island, Block Island, October 24;
New York, Fair Haven Light, September 28, and Long Beach, November 7
(exceptionally late date); New Jersey, Cape May, September 13; and
Pennsylvania, Erie, September 26.
_Casual records._--The piping plover has been detected outside of its
regular range on very few occasions. A specimen in the British Museum
from the Lake of the Woods, Ontario, may indicate breeding in that
locality. One was obtained at Cheyenne, Wyo., on May 30, 1892.
_Egg dates._--Quebec and New Brunswick: 55 records, June 1 to 29; 28
records, June 5 to 18. New England to New Jersey: 48 records, May 22 to
June 29; 24 records, May 28 to June 23. Dakotas: 13 records, May 26 to
July 1; 7 records, May 28 to June 6.
CHARADRIUS NIVOSUS NIVOSUS (Cassin)
SNOWY PLOVER
HABITS
The charming little snowy plover of the Pacific coast is the
counterpart of our familiar piping plover, found in similar haunts,
perhaps even tamer and more confiding, but not equal to our eastern
bird in melody of voice. It is a child of the sand, with which its
colors blend so well that when crouched in some hollow or against some
bleached piece of driftwood or half buried clam shell it seems to be
just one more of the numerous, inconspicuous objects which one passes
unnoticed on the beach. Its favorite haunts are the broad expanses of
flat, dry sand above the ordinary wash of the tides on ocean beaches.
Such places are usually strewn more or less thickly with shells,
pebbles, and various bits of débris, among which the little plover,
or its eggs and young, are surprisingly inconspicuous. Here it was
born and has always lived; here it woos its mate and rears its little
family; and hence it seldom strays except to feed along the water’s
edge on the ocean beach or on the bare flats along some near-by tidal
creek. There are, however, a few places in the interior where the snowy
plover has been found along the shores of salt or alkaline lakes. But
it is mainly a bird of the ocean beaches.
_Spring._--The snowy plover wanders north in the spring as far as the
coast of Washington. D. E. Brown tells me that he saw it in Grays
Harbor County from April 7 to 13, 1918, and from May 14 to 16, 1914, in
Pacific County. But apparently no one has ever found it breeding there,
although several good observers have looked for it.
_Nesting._--The nesting grounds of the snowy plover have been briefly
described above, but a better description is contained in the following
quotation from W. Lee Chambers (1904):
The nesting ground is a white sandy cape or narrow strip
of land between Ballona Swamp and the ocean about 2 miles
long and 200 yards wide. This place during the fall high
tides is completely flooded and deposits of small rocks
and broken shells are left there. Among these the plovers
place their nests. On approaching it one may be attracted
by noticing the little fellows running about on the sand in
front of him or occasionally flying in low, wide circles
uttering a pleading whistle so characteristic of this
species. This whistle I have learned is a danger signal
that I am near their nests, and on looking over the ground
carefully I may be able to notice fine bird tracks in the
white sand or in the patches of white sand between the
shells and rocks.
In going over the ground carefully where the tracks are
the thickest a nest will generally be found. Sometimes the
birds will build among the small rocks, where the tracks
can not be seen, and here the eggs are safe, as their
coloration protects them, for they look exactly like small
rocks. The nests are, as a rule, found by a mark of some
kind, a bone of some animal, a small dead weed, or a bit
of driftwood, and are slight depressions in the sand. Some
are completely lined with broken shells or fish bones with
the eggs pointed toward the center, very close together and
about half buried in the nest lining. A pair of birds will
build several nests during the season and use only one, for
I have found nests all fixed up and completely surrounded
with tracks. This I noticed especially in 1901, for I found
about three times as many unused nests as used ones. During
this season I visited Ballona about three times a week and
gave the birds careful study.
While J. Eugene Law was helping me to get acquainted with the birds of
southern California, we spent a delightful day, May 29, 1914, among
these birds with Mr. Chambers at Del Rey, Los Angeles County. This was
once a typical nesting place of this species, a broad stretch of sand
flats above an ocean beach, backed by sand dunes and bordered on the
inner side by a sluggish stream meandering through a marsh and some
brackish lagoons. But civilization was encroaching on the plover’s
paradise, for several cottages had been built on the beach and it was
much frequented. Some four pairs of snowy plover still clung to their
ancestral home; we found three nests with three eggs each and one empty
nest, in open spaces among the houses. The nests were mostly on little
mounds of sand and scattered pebbles or among low sand dunes covered
with low weeds and vines. They were deep hollows in the sand, profusely
lined with finely broken white and pink shells, among scattered small
stones, bits of wood, or other rubbish. Amid such surroundings the eggs
were not easily detected; but we could usually locate the nests by the
multitude of little footprints in the sand converging toward the nest.
All but one of the birds were shy and sneaked off the nests before we
drew near. They watched us from a distance, running about very swiftly,
whistling their soft, plaintive notes of protest. One bird was very
tame; I gradually walked up very close to her and finally photographed
her within 3 or 4 feet. This gentle and confiding little bird, after
running about with drooping wings and spread tail, came slowly up to
the nest and settled down on the eggs right in front of me, spreading
out her plumage to cover her treasures. As a reward for her bravery we
did not disturb her further.
Grinnell, Bryant, and Storer (1918) write that:
In the vicinity of the salt works near Alvarado, on the
Alameda County shore of San Francisco Bay, L. R. Reynolds
found that a great many pairs had in the summer of
1914 selected nesting sites on the dike separating the
salt ponds. The workmen, in traversing the dikes with
wheelbarrows, reported having broken many eggs.
_Eggs._--The snowy plover ordinarily lays three eggs, but often only
two. Mr. Chambers (1904) says that out of 44 sets which he collected 11
were of two eggs and 33 were of three. The two egg sets were complete,
as he left them long enough to make sure. The eggs were laid about
three days apart. The extended nesting season, April to July, would
seem to indicate that two broods are raised, but I believe that this
has not been positively proven. The eggs are short, ovate in shape,
and without gloss. They are colored to match the sand--“olive buff” to
“pale olive buff,” or “cartridge buff.” They are more or less evenly
but not thickly covered with small spots, dots, or little scrawls of
black and a few small inconspicuous spots of “pallid mouse gray.” The
measurements of 51 eggs average 30.4 by 22.3 millimeters; the eggs
showing the four extremes measure =32.5= by 23.5, 30 by =24=, and =28=
by =20.5= millimeters.
_Young._--Apparently both sexes share the duties of incubation and care
of the young, at which they prove devoted parents. When the young are
approached the parents use all the artifices known to similar species
to distract the attention of the intruder, fluttering along as if both
wings and legs were helpless, or grovelling in the sand as if wounded.
Such tactics often succeed in fooling a dog and enticing him far enough
away but to human beings they are only an incentive to look carefully
for the tiny balls of down that, obedient to their parents’ note of
warning, are crouched immovable and well-nigh invisible in some little
hollow in the sand or under or against some object on the beach. And
there the little one remains “frozen” until touched or until sure that
he is observed; when, presto, off he goes, running at a marvelous pace
on his strong little legs. We watch him for some time as he scampers
away for a long distance until suddenly he vanishes; then, unless we
have marked him down exactly and kept our eyes on the spot, we had
better give up hope of finding him again.
_Plumages._--The downy young snowy plover is quite unlike the young
piping plover. The entire upper parts are pale buff, “cream buff” to
“cartridge buff,” mixed with grayish white. The crown, back, rump,
wings, and thighs are distinctly and quite evenly spotted with black.
The under parts are pure white.
In the juvenal plumage the crown, mantle, rump, cheeks, and a space
in front of the wing are “drab,” or “light drab,” with a pinkish buff
tinge on the tips of the feathers; the forehead and all under parts are
white. The first winter plumage is similar, without the buffy edgings.
Adults have a complete postnuptial molt in late summer and fall, and a
partial prenuptial molt in early spring. Males in nuptial plumage have
the crown and nape “pinkish buff,” and a broad band above the forehead,
an auricular patch and a patch in front of the wing abruptly clear
black. In females the crown is pale drab, like the back, and the dark
markings are more restricted and more brownish. In winter the sexes are
alike, similar to the spring female, but the dark markings are even
duller, about the same tone as the back.
_Food._--Snowy plover feed mainly on the sandy beaches, foraging on the
wet sand and at the surf line, where they are expert at dodging the
incoming waves and very lively, running up and down the beach as the
waves advance or recede. Here they often forage in compact bunches,
picking up small crustaceans, marine worms, or other minute marine
organisms. Inland they feed along the muddy or alkaline shores of ponds
or lakes, on various insects, such as beetles or flies. Dr. A. K.
Fisher (1893) says:
This handsome little plover was observed by the writer
on the shores of Owens Lake, near Keeler, May 30 to
June 4, where it was common in small flocks of 5 or 10
on the alkaline flats which border the lake. Like most
other birds in the vicinity, it fed extensively, if not
exclusively, on a species of small fly (_Ephydra hians_
Say), which was found in immense masses near the edge of
the lake. Many of these swarms of flies were four or five
layers deep and covered an area of 15 or 20 square feet.
Some idea can be formed of the inexhaustible supply of food
which this insect furnishes for birds when it is known
that colonies of equal size occurred at close intervals in
suitable localities all around the lake, which has a shore
line of between 40 and 50 miles.
_Behavior._--Grinnell, Bryant, and Storer (1918) write:
When searching for food they move about a great deal,
with a distinct trot, and on occasion have been seen to
hop along on one leg as Torrey has observed sanderlings
to do at Santa Barbara. Their movements are rapid and
their strides exceedingly long. At Netarts Bay, Oreg.,
Jewett says that when running fast the strides of one of
these birds proved to measure 6 inches. One of the birds
will start, run 3 or 4 feet, and stop suddenly, the whole
performance occupying but a second or two. There is an
abrupt upward tilt of the body at intervals, and with the
return movement the quavering note is often uttered. In
flight the birds may travel in open formation, or closely
massed, and the flight may be either direct, or in zigzag
course as with the small sandpipers. Both in flight, and on
the ground, their chunky appearance helps to distinguish
them from the small sandpipers. They are quite tame and
will usually permit a close approach, preferring apparently
to trot along in front of the observer, or off to one side,
rather than to take wing.
Florence Merriam Bailey (1916) observes:
Besides the large waders, the godwits, willets, and surf
birds, there were flocks of little sanderlings and snowy
plover, looking like small chickens on the beach among the
bigger birds. The snowy plover, plump, squat little fellows
with head markings that suggest wide foreheads and backs
that match the sand on which they love to sun themselves,
when feeding on the beach would hurry back ahead of the
foam, their short legs making them more in danger of
getting wet than the long-legged godwits. When resting,
the plump little sandy-backed fellows kept by themselves.
Sometimes as I walked along above the line of the tide,
bits of sand would take legs ahead of me, the brown forms
that squatted in my path having been entirely overlooked.
When I saw them before they got up, and stopped to talk to
them, the confiding little fellows flatteringly sat still
or went on fixing their feathers, looking very comfortable
in the warm sand. To me they seemed the most winning and
attractive of all the lovely little sandpipers. When they
were surprised and ran from me they did it in a comical
crouching way as if knowing their backs were sand color and
trying to hide their black legs and plump white bodies.
Their habit of bobbing the head is doubtless useful at
times, but the motion often catches the eye when without it
they would not be separated from the sand.
_Voice._--Grinnell, Bryant, and Storer (1918) say: “Snowy plover are
exceptionally quiet birds; but at times a low, guttural, trilling note,
_cr-r-r-r_ or _pe-e-e-et_, may be given, and when the vicinity of the
nest is invaded the birds give utterance to relatively loud cries.”
_Field marks._--They also give the best recognition marks, as follows:
The snowy plover is readily distinguished from most other
shore birds occurring in California by its very small size
(total length, 6–7 inches). It is but slightly larger than
our smallest shore bird, the least sandpiper. The chunky
appearance, short, thick bill (which is shorter than the
head), white collar around hind neck, uniform pale drab
upper surface, pure white under surface, and conspicuous
dark-brown or black patches at the sides of the breast
are all useful as aids to recognition. From the killdeer,
and the semipalmated and Wilson plovers, the snowy is
distinguished by its lack of complete black or dark-brown
breast band and by its smaller size, and from the least
and western sandpipers, and from the sanderling, by its
white collar around hind neck and by the dark patches at
the sides of its chest; and, in spring, from the last three
named birds by the absence of mixed coloration on its upper
surface.
_Winter._--The snowy plover is a permanent resident throughout the
southern part of its range, though perhaps the same individuals may
not be present all the year round. It winters as far north as San
Francisco, but more abundantly from Santa Barbara southward, where its
numbers are increased in winter by migrants from farther north and
where flocks of 50 or more are often seen.
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--The United States (principally the western part), the West
Indies, and Central and South America.
_Breeding range._--The snowy plover breeds north probably to Washington
(Willapa Harbor); Utah (Bear River and Farmington); southern Kansas
(Comanche County); Oklahoma (Cimarron River); Mississippi (Horn
Island); Florida (Pensacola, and Santa Rosa Island); and Cuba (rarely
Guantanamo). East to Cuba (rarely Guantanamo). South to Cuba (rarely
Guantanamo); southern Texas (Refugio County, probably San Patricio
County, and Corpus Christi); probably New Mexico (Carlsbad); and
Lower California (La Paz). West to Lower California (La Paz, probably
Santa Rosalia Bay, and probably San Quentin Bay); California (San
Diego, probably San Nicholas Island, probably San Miguel Island,
Santa Barbara, Morro, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Pescadero, San Francisco,
and Eureka); probably Oregon (Netarts Bay); and probably Washington
(Willapa Harbor).
_Winter range._--The winter range extends north to California (Santa
Cruz Islands); Texas (Brownsville, Corpus Christi, and Aransas Bay);
probably coastal regions of Louisiana; Florida (Pensacola, Santa
Rosa Island, Cedar Keys, Clearwater, and Fort Myers); Bahama Islands
(Riley); probably Cuba (Gundlach); probably Yucatan; and Chile
(Calbuco). South to Chile (Calbuco). West to Chile (Calbuco, and
probably Valparaiso); Peru (Chorillos, and the valley of the Tambo);
probably Guatemala (Chiapam); Lower California (La Paz, Magdalena
Islands, and San Cristobal Bay); and California (San Diego, Santa Cruz
Island, Santa Barbara, and Monterey Bay). They also were noted at
Westport, Wash., on December 19, 1927 (letter, J. H. Bowles), and so
may winter rarely in that region.
_Spring migration._--But little information is available concerning
the migration of the snowy plover. Early dates of spring arrival are:
Kansas, McPherson, April 14, and Douglas County, April 22; Utah, Salt
Lake County, May 3; Oregon, Corvallis, March 24, and Malheur Lake,
April 20; and Washington, Grays Harbor, April 7.
_Fall migration._--The few available late dates of fall departure are:
Washington, Point Chehalis, November 18; and northern California, San
Francisco, November 1, and Alameda, December 3.
_Casual records._--The snowy plover has been detected outside of its
normal range on a few occasions. Among these are: Brazil (Specimen in
United States National Museum); southern Chile (Coquimbo, Straits of
Magellan in June [Sharpe]); Ontario, Toronto, one specimen in May,
1880, and another on July 6, 1897 (Fleming); Nebraska, two specimens
at Lincoln, May 17, 1903 (Swenk); Wyoming, one taken near Cheyenne
(Knight); while a specimen from Kodiak Island, Alaska, reported by
Schalow (1891) as _Charadrius alexandrinus_, may be this species.
_Egg dates._--California: 155 records, April 2 to July 28; 78 records,
May 5 to June 14. Utah: 5 records, April 30 to June 15.
[AUTHOR’S NOTE.--The above distribution includes both North American
races. Probably the birds found breeding east of the Rocky Mountains
and wintering on eastern coasts will prove to be referable to
_tenuirostris_, but there are not enough specimens available from these
localities to outline definitely the ranges of the two races.]
CHARADRIUS NIVOSUS TENUIROSTRIS (Lawrence)
CUBAN SNOWY PLOVER
HABITS
The snowy plover which breeds on the Gulf coasts of Texas, Louisiana,
and Florida, as well as in Cuba, the Bahamas, and a few places in the
interior has been separated from the Pacific coast form under the above
name. The difference between the two forms is not easily recognized,
but the eastern bird is said to be much paler and may average a trifle
smaller. The habits of the two seem to be similar. N. S. Goss (1891)
found this bird breeding on the salt plains along the Cimarron River,
Indian Territory, in 1886. Herbert W. Brandt sent me some notes on a
nest found by him in Nueces County, Tex. Francis M. Weston writes to me
that it is common and breeds near Pensacola, Fla. He says of its notes:
When on the ground the Cuban snowy plover gives a
low-pitched, musical whistle, roughly indicated by the
words _pe-wee-ah_ or _o-wee-ah_, the accent being on the
second syllable with the first and third almost inaudible
at a distance of 30 feet. The flight note is a purring
whistle, suggestive of the rolling note of the Carolina
wren but pitched lower and not as strident.
It was apparently common during the winter in Pinellas County, Fla.,
frequenting the sandy islands and ocean beaches in the vicinity of
Tampa Bay; but we found it difficult to separate it, in immature
and winter plumages, from young piping plover, unless we were near
enough to recognize its slender bill; the difference in size was not
noticeable except by direct comparison. I can find nothing in its
nesting habits or in its behavior in which it differs from the Pacific
snowy plover. I have not seen its eggs, but presume that they are like
those of the western form.
CHARADRIUS MONGOLUS MONGOLUS Pallas
MONGOLIAN PLOVER
HABITS
According to the Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain: