Tropical Audubon Society

South Florida’s Voice of Conservation

I've been asked about the Crandon Beach wintering Piping Plovers so here is the information that I've gathered:

There are 32 Piping Plovers wintering here for the 2016-17 season, a slightly lower number than usual. Of these birds, 7 are banded. Only 1 bird is new, the other 6 birds are returning birds from 3 different banding project areas.

3 birds from Great Lakes (various areas of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore); 1st year, 2nd year and 5th returning year

2 birds from NY (Fire Island National Seashore); 2nd year and 3rd returning year

2 birds from the Missouri River project; 3rd year from South Dakota and 4th returning year from Nebraska

Only 1-2 Wilson's Plovers wintered this season. However 1-2 Semipalmated Sandpipers have been here since November and nicely photographed from December 1 - February 10. This is a very unusual shorebird species to winter in the US.