Flagged Piping Plover

Let's take a flight back in time and down to Miami in this post. Back in February and March, right before COVID-19 emerged across America, I was spending a couple weeks of my time working with many of our birds in their wintering tropical paradise. I was happy to see a banded and flagged Piping Plover in Miami, green flag (GF) M9E. Apart from this bird's flag on the left leg, it had an orange band on the right.

I reported it to the Virginia Tech Shorebird Program, knowing it was one of their birds. It turns out this female was banded as an adult on June 18, 2017 on her nesting grounds of Fire Island National Seashore, New York. She is a regular at this wintering site in Miami because she's a very smart bird! I hope I will be able to go find her next winter, for both of our sakes, in Miami again.

For all of you in Connecticut, please report any banded or flagged Piping Plovers you see to Laura Saucier (Laura.Saucier@ct.gov) and Rebecca Foster (Rebecca.Foster@ct.gov) of CT DEEP plus us at AAfCW (ctwaterbirds@gmail.com). Thank you!

Scott Kruitbosch
AAfCW Volunteer Coordinator
RTPI Manager of Connecticut Programs