Recipient Organization
STATE UNIV OF NEW YORK
(N/A)
SYRACUSE,NY 13210
Performing Department
Environmental & Forest Biology
Non Technical Summary
The Atlantic coast population of piping plovers (Charadrius melodus) was listed as threatened by the Endangered Species Act in 1986. Atlantic coast piping plovers nest on open, sandy beaches from North Carolina to Nova Scotia, and depend on the Atlantic coast for the remainder of their annual cycle (migration and wintering). As the focus on clean energy continues in the United States, the development of wind power in coastal areas poses a potential threat to piping plovers that could counteract recent recovery successes gained through protection and management. Since listing, the population has recovered from 790 pairs to more than 1,800 pairs in 2008 (USFWS 1996). Recovery of the species can be attributed to an intensive effort across the breeding range to protect habitat, minimize anthropogenic disturbance, and reduce predator pressures in order to maximize survival and productivity. It appears as though there is a great deal of potential for wind power development in shallow waters along the Atlantic coast. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Five Year Review (2009) for the recovery of the piping plover identifies 15 multi-turbine projects built or proposed in the Atlantic Coast piping plover's breeding range; however, the magnitude of the threat posed by turbine collisions cannot be evaluated with current data because we lack information on behaviors that affect collision risk. Current models have demonstrated that wind power-related collision mortality is affected by rotor diameter and speed, bird speed, flight height, and avoidance behavior (Chamberlain et al. 2005).Our goal is to quantify the flight behaviors of nesting piping plovers and to provide new information regarding object avoidance within their habitat in order to better understand how wind power development at or near breeding sites may impact their continued recovery. Ourobjectives are to quantify piping plover flight pathways, flight heights, and flight speeds and to determine whether behavior modifications are made in response to obstacles within their flight paths.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
To estimate movement frequency and height of flying Piping Plovers commuting and displaying during the breeding season, under a range of environmental conditions, and the proportion of birds of different sexes and ages that fly through potential rotor-swept zones or tower locations.To assess whether Piping Plover flight paths during the breeding season are predictable.To determine response of flying Piping Plovers to novel and existing human objects in their pathTo determine the relationship between habitat configuration (area, proximity, and arrangement of nesting and foraging habitat) and habitat use and movements by adults and young.We will not explicitly be able to address Research Hypothesis 5 without an actual construction project, but our objective is to estimate baseline survival rates of adults and fledglings during the breeding season, for use in future risk assessments.
Project Methods
Habitat use and baseline survivalWe will estimate the 'proportion of time Piping Plovers spend in different cover types (e.g., sand flats, foreshore, backshore, wrack line, dune, blowout, washover fan) and different areas within their breeding sites using marked birds. This will allow us to assess · the propensity of birds to move, as well as to estimate displacement distances between surveys, based on habitat characteristics. Likewise, we will estimate weekly survival rates using mark-resight methods. We will individually mark up to 40 Piping Plovers in each state (New Jersey and Massachusetts), ideally both sexes of 20 pairs, and up to 80 chicks from the broods of those pairs, for monitoring of habitat use, movement distances, and survival. Adults will be trapped on their nests as soon after clutch completion as possible, using walk-in funnel traps (Cairns 1977). Traps are constructed of 2-foot chicken-::wire·-b-enttnto-a-currat-approximately2-feet-in-drameterwith-a-birl:Fnettirrg-roof, with a funnel-shaped opening on one side to allow birds to enter; and staked down with iron rods. An exit hole will be cut into the back of the corral, leading into a soft dome shaped funnel constructed of bird netting stretched on a wire frame. Researchers will approach the corral on the entrance side, causing the birds to flush on foot out the back exit and into the soft funnel away from their eggs, where they will be removed through a slit in the netting. For nests surrounded by a predator exclosure, the soft funnel will be placed with its opening tight against the exclosure side and staked there. Two-foot chickenwire will be run from either side of the funnel opening and staked tightly against the base of the exclosure, except for a 2-foot space opposite the funnel allowing the bird to re-enter the exclosure. Researchers will approach the exclosure on the entrance-hole side, causing the birds to flush out of the exclosure on foot into the funnel trap. If birds attempt to fly inside the exclosure, the researchers will back off again until the bird settles. Adults will be placed in a pre-weigh d cloth bag until they are processed.Trapping will not occur in rain, wind > 20 mph, or ambient temperatures > 90 degrees F. Once captured, adults will be niarked with two Darvic color bands (proposed colors: orange, black, gray, blue, yielding 256 possible combinations) on each upper leg. Adults will be weighed, and measurements of culmen, tarsus, and wing chord will be taken, before the bird is released. Each trapping event (researchers targeting a particular nest) will be 30 minutes or less from flushing to capture, and if a bird is not captured in that time another attempt will not be made for 48 hours on that nest. Handling time from removal from the trap to release of the bird will be less than 10 minutes.Chicks will be captured by hand after they have survived at least 10 days (when survival rate typically increases, )and individually-marked using the same scheme and colors as the adults. Soft cloth (such as the back of a sweep net) will be used to block chicks running from researchers (Catlin 2009), and then chicks will be picked up by hand and placed in bags prior to processing.Researchers will attempt to resight all banded adults and chicks on at least 2 survey days per week once per survey day, by surveying transects through all kriown nesting,roosting, and foraging areas. Birds will be observed from 100 meters with a 60x spotting scope, with the researcher moving forward by degrees if necessary, taking care to determine if their presence is disrupting the birds' behavior and attempting to avoid such a situation. For each banded bird observed alone or in a group, observers will record band combination, initial cover type used and initial behavior observed (e.g., foraging, resting, preening, incubating, Qrooding), breeding status (territorial, scraping/courting, . laying, incubating, brood tending), and use a GPS unit to record the location of the bird; Distances between successive observations will be calculated using a geographic information system (GIS), and repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) or nonparametric analogs will be used to compare distances and habitat use (proportion of timeirrdifferem-c-overiypeoraremr)--among sites- . eormackc:.folly"5-ebermodels-witl--b used to estimate weekly survival rates from band resightings.Flight paths and heightsPrior to the nesting period (i.e., March to late April), unmarked birds will be studied to record flight heights and frequency for courtship displays and non-courtship flight distances and pathways. Once the nesting period commences, radio-tracking of a subsample of birds will be used to estimate flight paths (Hull et al. 2001) and heights of female Piping Plovers. In the first week of the study at both sites, rangefinders with height functions will be used for height estimation exercises by all crew members, and a120' tether marked in 10' increments will be raised with a 6' diameter helfum balloon to aid in height estimation. Up to 10 adult female Piping Plovers and 8 fledglings will be radio-tagged in each state and followed until 15 August. Radio-tags will be applied to chicks close to fledging (20+ days of age) and to adults when captured on the nest.Radio-tags (1.3-g) will be applied to the intrascapular region using 5-minute epoxy (Drake et al. 2001). Up to four radio-tagged birds per day will be randomly selected without replacement for sampling, by each of 2 observers. Untagged males (March - April) will be selected for sampling as they are encountered, from a different 200-m segment of beach each day. After nesting birds are marked, radio-tagged birds will be relocated at the start of a survey, and observed with a 60x spotting scope for 2 hours.When a bird under observation moves, the observer will follow from 50 to 100 m away, using radio-telemetry to assist if applicable. Locations of the birds will be recorded every minute using a GPS unit. If a bird flies more than 100 m over land but remains in view, the observer will attempt to record the flight path using a GPS unit and will estimate the height of the flight, then relocate the bird. If the bird flies out of view over land, the observer will walk along the path used by the bird until the vanishing point if possible, recording the track using the GPS unit. The observer will also attempt to· estimate flight height. If the path cannot be followed, the observer will attempt to record the start and end points of the path, before proceeding to attempt to relocate the bird's new location. Position and height of the path, and distance and height of nearest human structures, if any, will be recorded. If the bird flies over water, the observer will record the point of departure from land using a GPS unit, and estimate the bearing and distance of the path taken over water until vanishing. Weekly or biweekly boat surveys will be used to locate difficult-to-access foraging sites (e.g., saltmarsh islands and tidal flats) via radio-tracking and visual observation. Data-logging Automated Telemetry Receiving Stations (ARTS) will be placed in such spots for the duration of the study after the first birds are tagged, and data will be downloaded from them one to two times per week, to allow for estimation of frequency of use by Piping Plovers. These data will be used in a GIS to calculate probabilities and heights for different movement paths, for different phases of the breeding cycle (incubation, brood-rearing, post brood rearing) for adult females anarorfleCigimgs -Wew11Tattempf t6-recorcnne-patnsof-a.r1easC2YtOO=m or commuting flights per bird per phase of the breeding season.