On July 10, 1996, Bill Busby, of the Kansas Biological Survey, found a nesting Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) on a sandbar on the Kansas River near Wabaunsee. At that time there were three eggs in the nest. On July 17, I accompanied Dan Mulhern and Greg Kramos, US Fish and Wildlife Service, on a boat trip from Manhattan to Wamego to see if we could find this nest and document it photographically. This was important because of two facts. First, the bird had never been recorded as a breeding bird in Kansas. Second, it is listed by the USFWS as a threatened species in parts of its range, and as an endangered species in other parts.
Our trip was not only successful, in that we located and photographed the nest that Busby had found, but we also found evidence for nesting of another endangered species, the Least Tern (Sterna antillarum) along the same stretch of the river. We saw several adults and at least a dozen young terns; these birds had never previously been recorded as nesting birds in the Kansas River basin. Finally, we saw another pair of piping plovers, accompanying a pair of recently fledged and flying youngsters. The flood of 1993 created the sandbar habitat favored by both of these endangered species; perhaps there is a silver lining to those storm clouds after all.
In the midwest, Piping Plovers are declining because of loss of nesting habitat. These small, stocky shorebirds use wide, flat, open, sandy areas with very little grass or other vegetation. Nesting territories often include small creeks or wetlands. Such habitat is becoming more and more rare as dams are built and rivers "controlled" for human activities. Through the use of dams or other water control structures, humans are able to raise and lower the water levels of many lakes and rivers near plover inland nest sites. Too much water in the spring floods the plovers' nests. Too little water over a long period of time allows grasses and other vegetation to grow on the prime nesting areas, making these sites unsuitable for successful nesting. Perhaps a more enlightened approach to floodplain management would allow these diminutive shorebirds to peacefully co-exist with us. At any rate, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me to see and photograph these birds in this place. I hope they come back next year!
Dave Rintoul
