Fading birds find refuge here

Beach counts show robust numbers of piping plovers, red knots passing through

Chris Snook

A piping plover walks at north Folly Beach in 2006. The bird's color band combo indicates that it is a member of the endangered Great Lakes breeding population of piping plovers.

You probably couldn't pick out the nondescript piping plover from the other tiny birds scooting along the beach wash. You may have never heard of a red knot, one of those other birds.

If you held one in each hand, though, you might feel the future of Lowcountry in their quivering hearts. At a time when birds such as these are declining nationwide, recent counts on South Carolina beaches are coming back with what one recovery specialist called a pretty robust set of numbers.

The disappearing species are holding their own here, amid a sharp decline in the number of birds overall that includes everyday species such as bluejays. That disappearance has birders alarmed over what might be a fatal loss of habitat. The open strands of the Lowcountry coast may well be critical to these migrating birds' survival. That bodes well for other species here from the painted bunting to the pelican.

"We have definitely detected more plovers here and in areas we didn't know were important before," said Melissa Bimbi, U.S. Fish and Wildlife endangered-species biologist, about sightings by the multi-agency South Carolina Shorebird Project.

"What we've been seeing here are remarkably large numbers of red knots migrating through," said Chris Snook, of the Cape Romain Bird Observatory, about that group's Midwinter Piping Plover Census that also counts the red knots. "The beaches around here are a very valuable component."

Both groups point to the value of a range of Lowcountry habitat protection efforts, from leashing dogs on the beach to closing off rookery islands and diking 28,000 acres of wetlands.

The plover is the federal endangered species that caused a ruckus on Kiawah Island a few years ago when environmental groups opposed sand dredging to shore up the 18th hole of the resort's prestigious Ocean Course, because the dredging would take sand from a spit used by the migrating plovers.

The bird is considered a threatened species in South Carolina and the Kiawah beach a vital habitat. The project went ahead with concessions made and birders are keeping a close eye on the beach.

The year-long shorebird project identified 77 individual plovers. The midwinter census counted 125 — the third record-setting year in a row, according to the American Bird Conservancy. Even Kiawah sported a batch of plovers along the Ocean Course beach that some birders worried they would abandon.

The red knot too is in bad shape. The birds migrate from the Arctic as far south as Tierra Del Fuego at the tip of Argentina. Counts on their Delaware Bay grounds have declined from 90,000 in the early 1990s to about 12,000 today. Against declines like that, the midwinter census counters spotted thousands of red knots.

"The effort is important not only to keep up with the numbers and the trends, but for getting word out to the general public how important South Carolina beaches are to these birds," Bimbi said.

Reach Bo Petersen at 745-5852 or bpetersen@postandcourier.com.