Banded Snowy Plovers at Coal Oil Point Reserve

Photographs and band observations from Coal Oil Point Reserve in Santa Barbara County, California

Fall 2007

Birds at Sands Beach and Coal Oil Point Reserve — September 8 through October 27, 2007

White-faced Ibis, banded Snowy Plovers and Terns, Willet, Marbled Godwit, Whimbrel, Long-billed Curlew, birds in flight, Venoco — Ellwood Terminal, birders, and Pectoral Sandpiper

Snowy Plover counts ranged between 170 and 250 that fall.

Banded Snowy Plover at Coal Oil Point Reserve on September 29, 2007
Banded Snowy Plover at Coal Oil Point Reserve on September 9, 2007 Banded Snowy Plover at Coal Oil Point Reserve on September 8, 2007 Banded Snowy Plover at Coal Oil Point Reserve on August 11, 2007 Banded Snowy Plover at Coal Oil Point Reserve on August 11, 2007 Banded Snowy Plover at Coal Oil Point Reserve on July 21, 2007
Banded Snowy Plovers photographed from July through September 2007
Banded Snowy Plover BOAO on May 5, 2007
I think this banded Snowy Plover, BOAO, had been showing up at Coal Oil Point Reserve since 2004. A younger version of BOAO can be seen on the 2003 and 2004 Banded Snowy Plover page.

2006

Snowy Plovers winter flock — December 23, 2006
Coal Oil Point Reserve, Goleta, Santa Barbara County, California. There were 220 plovers counted that day. This slideshow has many banded plovers—see if you can find some that are not obvious.

Banded Snowy Plover at Coal Oil Point Reserve in July 2006
July 2006 slideshow with photographs of plovers at Coal Oil Point Reserve
Movie of a Snowy Plover feeding by the shoreline

October 2006 — COPR, Sands Beach, and the Los Carneros area: Kingbirds, Kingfisher, banded Snowy Plovers, and Brown Pelicans riding a wave.

Banded Snowy Plover during nesting season at Coal Oil Point Reserve
Coal Oil Point Reserve — April 30, 2006. This banded bird was also here in 2004 and 2005.
Banded Snowy Plover at Coal Oil Point Reserve on February 18, 2006 Banded Snowy Plover at Coal Oil Point Reserve on February 20, 2006
Blue/Silver:Yellow (Aqua?) was photographed here on January 24, 2004, and March 30, 2005. The difference in coloration at the shoulders and crown of the head may be seasonal or a color reassignment.
Banded Snowy Plover at Coal Oil Point Reserve on February 11, 2006 Banded Snowy Plover at Coal Oil Point Reserve on February 11, 2006
P:GOG was banded at Vandenberg Air Force Base as a chick in 2003 and was seen at COPR in December of that year. GB:OW was banded as a chick at Pajaro Spit in 2005 and was at COPR that November.

2005

Banded Snowy Plover at Coal Oil Point Reserve in November 2005 Banded Snowy Plover on September 17, 2005 Banded Snowy Plover on September 10, 2005 Banded Snowy Plover in August 2005 Banded Snowy Plover on August 6, 2005
Banded Snowy Plover on June 25, 2005
Banded Snowy Plovers photographed from June through November 2005
Banded Snowy Plover with blue and orange bands at Coal Oil Point Reserve on June 11, 2005 Banded Snowy Plover with aqua and orange bands at Coal Oil Point Reserve on April 30, 2005
Left: Blue/Orange. Right: Aqua/Orange. Both were also photographed in January 2004 at COPR. See the January 2004 Banded Snowy Plovers photograph.
Banded Snowy Plover at Coal Oil Point Reserve on April 27, 2005 Banded Snowy Plover at Coal Oil Point Reserve on April 11, 2005
Banded Snowy Plovers at Coal Oil Point Reserve on April 9, 2005 Banded Snowy Plovers at Coal Oil Point Reserve in April 2005 Banded Snowy Plover at Coal Oil Point Reserve on March 30, 2005 Banded Snowy Plover on March 25, 2005
Banded Snowy Plovers photographed from March through April 2005

Earlier observations

Snowy Plover resting place Snowy Plover leg bands
Banded Snowy Plover pictures from 2003 and 2004
Snowy Plover docent Melissa Kelly at Coal Oil Point Reserve
Coal Oil Point Reserve, Santa Barbara County — January 31, 2004

An older letter from Cris about Snowy Plover banding

Note: This is an older letter from Cris regarding plover banding.

I hope you had a good holiday break. My family was here and I had a great time. Thank you all who were able to come to the Reserve during the holidays. I know this time is especially difficult for most of you.

I am sending you a Word table with information about the plovers that are banded and observed at Coal Oil Point Reserve. I update this table once a week, so I will send you the latest table once in a while.

Melissa Kelly, who is a docent on Sundays at daybreak, is the official volunteer for Point Reyes Bird Observatory (PRBO). She is doing an amazing job recording plover bands and counting them about once a week. I then send this information to PRBO and they send me back the information about the origin of the banded plovers. PRBO has a huge database to track the movement of various bird species. With this information they can watch for declines, trends, etc.

The movement of plovers between inland and coast was essential information to determine that inland and coastal birds were separate populations that did not mix during the time of breeding. It is because of this information that the coastal population of Snowy Plovers was listed as threatened. When last year a group of people petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) for the plovers to be delisted, I was able to use the banding information to show that they are indeed separate populations (see attached letter to USFWS).

How can you use this information for the Reserve? The number of plovers from different locations observed at COPR may only represent the banding effort at different locations. With the information on the table attached, all we know are possible locations where our plovers come from. Few plovers from the south may only mean that plovers are not being banded in the south. We can say that our plovers are coming from various locations. This year we even have a plover from Oregon.

Are we going to band plovers at COPR? Probably not. COPR has problems with predation from visually oriented predators such as crows. The bands are brightly colored and may increase predation risk to young chicks.

Where do the plovers that breed at the Reserve come from? Nobody knows because the plovers that have bred here were not banded. We know from other well-studied areas that 60% of the plovers come back to the original site where they were born to breed in their first year. Thanks to the 40% that are more adventurous, we had plovers breeding here in 2002 after 30 years of no breeding. In 2004, it is likely that most of our breeding pairs will be from chicks born and raised at COPR. I wonder if these pairs will be tame as the chicks were.

Breeding will start at the end of March. We should start a new pool to see who guesses the right number of chicks for 2004.

All the best to all of you.
Cris

Cristina Sandoval, Ph.D.
Coal Oil Point Reserve Director
Marine Science Institute
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9610
Phone: (805) 893-5092
Fax: (805) 893-8062

Coal Oil Point Reserve

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