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Reporting a PIPL

 
Great Lakes Piping Plovers
How to Report

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To report a banded Piping Plover email your information to plover@umn.edu . Within a week you will receive a personal message with information about the plover you observed.

 

The critical pieces of information needed to make your observation useful are:

•   A description or photo of the band locations and colors on the bird’s left and right legs. Note if you saw either alpha-numeric codes or colored dots on any bands or flags.

•   A description of the location of your observation including the state and, if possible, the county.

•   The date of your observation.

 

In addition it’s very helpful to include:

•   GPS coordinates for the location (these can be closely estimated from google earth if you don’t have a GPS unit available.)

•   Digital photographs of the plover. These are very useful when they’re available.  The most reliable reports include both a description and a photograph. If you send a photo please let us know if we have permission use it to post on this site, on our FaceBook page, and in other ways to benefit Piping Plover conservation. Also let us know how you'd like the photo credited. 

•   Comments about behavior, weather, and plumage (breeding/non- breeding/molting) or anything else unusual or interesting…

Example Report - With Flag
Read and record band colors starting with the bird’s left leg, from top to bottom, then its right leg, from top to bottom.

Upper Left: Orange Flag

Lower Left top: Yellow over orange split band

Lower Left bottom: Green band

Upper right: Metal USGS band 

Lower Right Top: Red band

Lower Right bottom: nothing

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Location: (State, County, Place name) _____

Date: ______

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Example Report - Without Flag
Read and record band colors starting with the bird’s left leg, from top to bottom, then its right leg, from top to bottom.

Upper Left: Orange band with a yellow dot

Lower Left top: Light blue band with number 12?

Lower Left bottom: Nothing

Upper right: Metal USGS band 

Lower Right Top: Light blue/Orange/Light blue triple-split band

Lower Right bottom: nothing

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Location: (State, County, Place name)________

Date: ______

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