Management and Monitoring of the Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) at Assateague Island National Seashore, Maryland, 2000 Report
National Park Service and Maryland Department of Natural Resources. 2000. Management and Monitoring of the Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) at Assateague Island National Seashore, Maryland, 2000 Report. National Park Service
An estimated 60 pairs of breeding Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) resided on the Maryland portion of Assateague Island National Seashore during 2000. The population has remained stable since 1996. Nesting activity was documented on the northern 8.0 km of the island and in the off road vehicle zone. Egg laying was initiated on or about 11 April and a total of 96 nest attempts were documented for the season. Forty-six successful nests hatched 150 chicks, of which 48 survived to 25 days of age, for a productivity of 0.8 chicks fledged per breeding pair. A total of 50 nests failed prior to hatching. Nineteen nests were lost to unknown causes, 13 to depredation, 11 to abandonment and 7 to weather. Observations indicate that learned behaviors to interact with exclosures persist in the local gull population. Due to the high levels of gull disturbance directly associated with predator exclosures in 1999, exclosures were not used in 2000. After a near absence since 1993, Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) utilized the northern 8 kilometers of the Maryland portion of Assateague, interacting with and negatively impacting most ground nesting avian species including plovers.
- Type
- Unpublished Report
- Authors
- National Park Service; Maryland Department of Natural Resources
- Date of Issue
- 2000-12
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- ASIS
- Keywords
- Animal Studies, Exclosures, gulls auks and allies (Charadriiformes), Least Tern (Sterna antillarum), Monitoring, Mortality, Nests & Nesting, Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus), Predation, Predators, Shorebirds, Threatened and Endangered Species