May 2023 • Nebraskaland 37
when a researcher spotted him on the Matagorda Peninsula
on the Gulf Coast of Texas. There, 89 spends much of his
time foraging for marine worms and insects in the wet tidal
sand without much disturbance from people. He returned in
2019, 2020 and 2021, where he was observed by the same
researcher each time.
In 2022, we received a report that 89 was back on the Texas
coast, having made the migration again. The researcher who
observed 89 attached a photo to the email. I opened the image
to find a plover and carefully matched the colored bands on
its legs.
The incredibleness of 89's life hit me when I saw that
photo. Since he was banded as an adult in 2010, that meant
89 was at least 13 years old in 2022. That's pretty old for a
piping plover, a species with an average lifespan of 5 years. In
those 13 years, 89 had three nests at three different nesting
site types and raised at least five chicks.
That's quite a legacy to contribute to the declining
population of the threatened species. In seven summers,
89 experienced every nesting habitat that Nebraska had to
offer: a river sandbar, a sand and gravel mine, a lakeshore
housing development and a transition site. He's been seen by
Partnership staff 18 times, and Texas coast researchers have
seen him 11 times.
Wherever 89 is resting his wings now, it isn't the end of the
story.
N
If you spot a banded piping plover (or any other bird), you
can help researchers by reporting the sighting to the USGS Bird
Banding Laboratory at pwrc.usgs.gov/BBL/bblretrv/.
Plover 89 looks for marine worms and other invertebrates along the beach on Matagorda Island in Texas.
TAYLOR BENNETT, GULF COAST BIRD OBSERVATORY
