Naturally Kiawah Magazine Volume 31 | Page 46

50

No.

Piping Plovers

Kiawah plays host, for ten months of the year, to endangered Great Lakes population piping plovers, one of the rarest birds
in North America. Brought back from the brink of extinction, they still number only 66 breeding pairs. I report piping
plovers with orange leg bands to U.S. Army and University of Minnesota researchers, who are intensely interested in
knowing where these birds winter. From them I learned that this piping plover, sighted on Captain Sams Spit, hatched last
summer on North Manitou Island in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Michigan. It flew more than 1,000 miles
in its first year to be with us. Spotting a piping plover can be a challenge. Their protective coloration makes them blend
into their surroundings. Sometimes you may notice their motion, as they scurry across the sand searching for worms, and,
sometimes, they give themselves away with their beautiful, distinctive whistle, or “piping.”
- Paula R. Feldman © 2014

51

No.

Red Knot
Migration

Every spring, sometime in March,
we are treated to the spectacle
of the migration of red knots, a
bird about the size of a common
robin. Red knots spend our winter
in Patagonia, but they gather in
flocks of hundreds to migrate
to the Arctic where they breed
during our summer. They stop
along the way to rest and feed
- their favorite food is the eggs
of the horseshoe crab - and then
go on their way. Normally their
feathers are gray and white, but
in the breeding season they have
a distinctive brick red color. After
summering in the Arctic, they
return to Patagonia, a round trip
of about 18,000 miles every year.
Although red knot migration has
been occurring for millennia, there
is great concern that the species is
heading to extinction owing to loss
of habitat and food supply.
- Jack Kotz