[texbirds] plovers have abandoned Mustang Island beach in Port Aransas area
- From: "Bert Frenz" <bertf@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2013 07:53:27 -0600
Where have all the plovers gone? Far, far, away!
I have visited a portion of Mustang Island, southern Port Aransas beach, for
many years and am always excited to see many Piping Plovers. I even know
some by name, so to speak, since I can identify individuals by the color
bands and I know their perseverance in feeding within marked territories.
It was not unusual to see 10-15 in a one-mile walk.
Yet for the past 3 days, including 4 long beach walks, I did not see a
single Piping Plover or Snowy Plover and only one Black-bellied Plover. I
met up with Tony Amos on one of his regular beach surveys and he told me the
same story. The plovers have abandoned the Port Aransas portion of the
Mustang Island beach. For years, I had also noticed that they did not visit
the Corpus Christi portion of the beach, between here and Mustang Island
State Park, a section always bulldozed "clean" in front of the hotels and
condos.
What changed this year is that the beaches are now being cleaned on the Port
Aransas section. I appreciate the jetsam-flotsam trash removal, but not the
scrapping of the beaches of all traces of seaweeds. It leaves a "pristine"
sand beach, enticing to beach goers, but not to plovers. While the world
has plenty of Black-bellied Plovers, not so for Piping Plovers. Removing
one of their prime winter-feeding sites may not boon well for them.
Bert
-------------------------------
Bert Frenz
Bert2@xxxxxxxxxxx
author, A Birder's Guide to Belize, 2013
Birds of the Oaks & Prairies of Texas
www.bafrenz.com <http://www.bafrenz.com/birds/>
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