Researchers hope for continued presence of piping plover on Lake Ontario after historic return

By GBLOCK@WDT.NET'>GORDON BLOCK

PUBLISHED: MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016 AT 12:30 AM

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION

On July 1, three piping plovers stand on the beach along Lake Ontario in Oswego County. A pair of piping plovers successfully nested on Lake Ontario’s shoreline for the first time in more than 30 years.

After three decades away, piping plovers made their return to Lake Ontario this past summer.

Now, researchers hope the shore birds’ progress in the region can continue.

James F. Faquhar, regional wildlife manager for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said the key was the health of the Great Lakes and of beach areas where they reside.

“Conditions are likely better now than they have been before,” he said. “When you can provide an inviting environment, species will find it and they’ll come.”

Three adult plovers were spotted over the summer on New York’s Ontario shore, including a breeding pair in Jefferson County that hatched two chicks. One chick survived to migrate south in August.

“It bodes well that the birds came here,” Mr. Faquhar said. “They’re viewing this area now as a good place to nest again.”

The discovery of the shore bird was a collaboration between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, state agencies and regional conservation groups.

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Invasive phragmites hurting bird population on Leslie St. Spit

By: Eric Andrew-Gee Staff Reporter, Published on Thu Aug 28 2014

Leslie St. Spit is a bird nerd’s paradise. The man-made peninsula curling out from the foot of the Port Lands has become internationally famous for its ornithological riches, home — or at least hotel — to both migratory beauties like the Cedar Waxwing and threatened Ontario birds like the Least Bittern, a kind of heron.

But that claim to fame is under threat, not by foresters or skyscraper windowpanes, but by an invasive plant with a menacing name. For the last few years, Phragmites australishas been gnawing away at the native vegetation of Tommy Thompson Park, located on the Spit. That’s hurting a handful of important bird species who rely on the local mud flats and bulrushes for food and shelter.

For now, Tommy Thompson park authorities have all but given up on fighting phrag, as it’s known. According to Karen McDonald, a project manager with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA), which operates Tommy Thompson Park, “We aren’t taking any action to control it, simply because it’s so difficult to control.”

The phrag invasion is not limited to the Spit — it’s been spreading throughout Ontario for decades. Feasting on moisture, the plant proliferates in wetlands and marshes, along lakeshores, and in the disturbed soil bordering highways. Stands have been reported as far north as Sudbury in the east and Fort Frances in the west.

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Deadly toxin killing loons and other water birds at beginning of St. Lawrence River

Friday, December 6, 2013 - 3:08 pm

A natural toxin is killing migrating water birds near where Lake Ontario empties into the St. Lawrence River, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Type E botulism struck the eastern basin of Lake Ontario this fall resulting in sizeable mortality in migrating waterbirds, said a DEC report.

Reports from the public and field investigations by DEC crews indicate that at least 200-300 common loons have washed ashore along Jefferson and northern Oswego County shorelines.

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