Piping Plover Rescue
The Piping Plover is a small bird facing a big problem – extinction.

In Ontario, they are known to breed only on the Sable Islands and at Windy Point, located in the southeastern region of the Lake of the Woods. Fortunately for the Plovers, there are several organizations in Canada working hard to increase their numbers.

Taking Action: The Federation of Ontario Naturalists (FON) prepare conservation plans for Ontario sites for the Important Bird Area (IBA) initiative, an international program dedicated to preserving bird habitat under the guidance of BirdLife International, with Canadian assistance from Bird Studies Canada and the Canadian Nature Federation. To protect Piping Plovers, FON is preparing a plan for Sable Island, Windy Point and Burton Island, a total of 12 square kilometers known as IBA Lake of the Woods Sand Spit Archipelago, and Three Sisters Islands (located off Bigsby Island in Lake of theWoods).

The Lake of the Woods’ Piping Plover population meets IBA criteria because it is considered to be a Continentally Significant Congregatory Species and a Nationally Significant Threatened Species. First listed by Ontario as an endangered species in 1977, the Piping Plover, and the areas where they live and breed, came under provincial protection from Ontario’s Endangered Species Act in 1980.

Because the breeding birds are under threat from predators and human recreational activities, protection measures include:
- adding signs indicating the presence of the endangered species;
- building exclosures to keep out gulls and foxes that prey on the birds (while exclosure seems an awkward term, this protection keeps predators out, and it is the word used by Ministry of Natural Resources personnel to describe the structure);
- designating Sable Island as a provincial nature reserve;
- banning motorized vehicles in the area.

Not only has the Piping Plover been at risk from predators and human activity, but increased Lake of the Woods water levels have contributed to nest destruction, as waves washed out the breeding area during stormy or windy weather. While this contributes to nest destruction, it also helps the species by bringing in food deposits and preventing heavy vegetation growth in their breeding grounds. The site is managed by the provincial government as a Nature Reserve.

International Significance: The area is being considered for additional conservation attention, having been recommended as an Endangered Species site within the mandate of the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHRSN). WHRSN is a program of the Manomet Centre for Conservation Science, a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to preserving shorebird species and habitat throughout the western hemisphere, working with over 140 private and public organizations.

Sand and Surf: The Piping Plover is attracted to the islands’ barrier island habitat, basically large sand dunes sparsely covered with shrub and trees with wide sandy shores and some marsh. Located in the southern section of the Lake of the Woods, where the climate is drier and warmer, the IBA represents Canada’s most easterly breeding site for the northern Great Plains Piping Plover population. The nearest other site is at Lake Manitoba 300 kilometres to the northwest; the distance between the two breeding sites boosts Lake of the Woods ecological significance as important habitat for a globally vulnerable species widely separated from other breeding locations.

The area hosts other shorebird migrants, including nesting Herring Gulls, Ring-billed Gulls, American White Pelicans, Common Terns, Marbled Godwits, Black Terns and Yellow-headed Blackbirds.