Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Terry's Piping Plover was Banded on Missouri River!

Early in February Terry was contacted by Ben Simpson, a wildlife biologist at Virginia Tech, concerning the color-banded Piping Plover Terry spotted and photographed near Fort Meyers, Florida. Ben had captured and marked the individual in 2008 as an adult along Lewis and Clark Lake. The lake is formed by the Gavins Point Dam on the Missouri River along the South Dakota and Nebraska border just west of Yankton, SD.

The green flag is used by Virginia Tech researchers to identify piping plovers banded on the Missouri River. The color bands identify the individual bird. VPI researchers are studying piping plover use of sandbars constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide habitat for least terns and piping plovers on the Missouri.

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