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<br />Life History <br />Breeding chronology and behavior: Piping Plovers are <br />migratory shorebirds that spend appro~~mately 3-4 months on <br />northern U.S. and southern Canadian breeding sites. In North <br />Dakota, birds begin arriving on breeding grounds in mid-April <br />(prindiville 1986); by mid-May, most Piping plovers have returned <br />to North Dakota, Minnesota, Manitoba, and other inland sites <br />(prindiville 1986, Wiens 1986, Haig 1985). Courtship behavior <br />includes aerial flights, digging of several nest scrapes and a <br />ritualized stone-tossing behavior (Cairns 1977, 1982; S. Haig, <br />National Zoo). Finished nest cups, frequently lined with small <br />pebbles or shell fragments are shallow depressions approximately <br /> <br />III <br />II <br />! <br /> <br />f <br /> <br />.~ <br /> <br />two cm deep and six cm in diameter. Territories are actively <br /> <br />defended by both adults. Egg laying commences the second or <br />third week of May. Females lay an egg every other day until a <br />four-egg clutch is complete. Both sexes share incubation duties <br />which last for 25-31 days (Wilcox 1959, Cairns 1977, Prindiville <br />1986, Wiens 1986, Haig and Oring 1988a). In Manitoba, incubation <br />began with the laying of the first egg (Haig 1987a) while Cairns <br />(1977) did not report the onset of incubation in Nova Scotia <br />until the third egg was laid. Cairns reported equal division of <br />incubation duties between the sexes, but males in Manitoba <br />assumed more diurnal incubation duties during'laying and just <br />prior to hatch than females (S. Haig, National Zoo). <br /> <br />17 <br />