WSP00190

• File Number: 8407
• Description: Platte River Basin - River Basin General Publications
• State: CO
• Basin: South Platte
• Water Division: 1
• Date: 6/2/1999
• Author: URS Greiner Woodward
• Title: Documentation of Existing Conditions in the Central Platte Valley - Delivery Order Number 86
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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SECTIONFIVE

Piping Plover

5.2.2 Overutilization by Humans

Early 20th century hunting severely reduced piping plover numbers. Illegal hunting is not
currently evident in the United States but could be a factor in Newfoundland and the West Indies
(FWS 1988). Biologists are also becoming increasingly aware of piping plover's sensitivity to
humans on their nesting territories (Haig and Oring 1987). Future research activities will need to
be carefully monitored.

5.2.3 Predation

Predation is a problem along the Atlantic and Great Lake beaches, on saline wetlands in the
prairies, and at sand and gravel pits along the Platte River in Nebraska. Increased urbanization
and use of beaches has brought an increase in the number of unleashed pets and unnaturally high
densities of wild predators such as gulls, skunks, etc. Cattle trampling nesting habitat may also
affect nest success and chick survival (FWS 1988).

5.2.4 Inadequate Regulatory Mechanisms

Even though the species had been declining for many years, past regulatory mechanisms were
inadequate to provide the piping plover with protection necessary to prevent future decline.
Federal recognition of me species (federal threatened species) by the United States and Canada
has improved the outlook for the piping plover. Implementation of actions in the recovery plan
by both countries will proyide additional protection for the species and its habitat.

5.3 BIOLOGY

The piping plover is a small, stocky shorebird that is sometimes mistaken for the more common
killdeer. Piping plovers are smaller than killdeer and measure between 6.5 and 7.5 inches in
length and have a narrow black band across the white breast and a black stripe across their white
forehead. They have a black-tipped orange bill and bright orange legs. The head, back, and
wings are pale sandy-brown to gray which provides natural camouflage on the open sandy areas
where they are found.

In the Great Plains, piping plovers arrive on the breeding grounds in late April or early May.
Soon after arrival, males establish a territory that encompasses wet shoreline for feeding and a
dry, sandy, relatively fllit area for nesting. Piping plovers, like least terns, nest on sparsely
vegetated sandbars, aggregate mining spoil piles, and reservoir shorelines. Piping plovers also
nest on shorelines of alkali lakes in the prairie pothole region of the United States and Canada.
Nesting habitats on the Platte, Niobrara, and Missouri rivers in Nebraska typically are dry
sandbars located mid-stream in wide, open channels beds, and with less than 25 percent
vegetative cover (Faanes 1983; Schwalbach 1988; Ziewitz et al. 1992). Even though piping
plovers will on occasion nest in areas with up to 25 percent vegetative cover, the optimum range
for vegetative cover on nesting habitat has been estimated at 0 to 10 percent (Armbruster 1986).
Schwalbach (1988) found that 89 percent of the piping plovers studied nested in areas of less
than 5 percent vegetative cover, and that the majority (63 percent) nested in areas where
vegetation height was less than 4 inches. These conditions provide the essential requirements of

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