Tracking Piping Plovers From Michigan to Florida: A Sleeping Bear Dunes Volunteer

Piping plovers are endangered, and at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore they depend on people watching over them. One of those people is Mary Lundeberg, a volunteer in the park's piping plover program — and her work follows the birds to their wintering grounds in Florida.

NPS staff and volunteers; Mary is at far right, in the green volunteer cap. She is usually the one behind the camera. NPS photo.

A year in the life of a banded bird

Plovers at the Lakeshore are fitted with color bands, and a good photograph of the bands identifies the individual bird. Mary is an expert photographer. Her pictures from Florida let NPS staff and partners track plovers through the whole year — from wintering grounds to breeding grounds and back.

On the beach

In the nesting season she helps monitor the birds on the Manitou Islands and the mainland, and works at pop-up events teaching visitors to share the shore: plovers blend into the sand and are most vulnerable while nesting, so chicks need room to forage. Mary describes the birds' "peep-lo" whistle as music to her, and finds watching a chick grow, get banded and fledge deeply rewarding; she has also enjoyed learning about the species and working alongside the rangers, monitors and other volunteers.

Her photographs — captive releases, banding, courtship, chicks exploring the beach — appear constantly in the park's public messages. "Mary is always willing to help with any plover conservation activity that comes her way," says NPS ranger Tess Kholer. "She is a delight to run into on the beach, always with a smile and an encouraging thought. The plovers (and we) are lucky to have her."

Sources

Based on "#MyParkStory Volunteer Mary Lundeberg," National Park Service, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, from the series #MyParkStory at Sleeping Bear Dunes; a work of the United States government in the public domain; rewritten in hubnx's own words.