Comparison of the breeding habitats of Little Ringed Plover Charadrius dubius and Kentish Plover Charadrius alexandrinus on a shingle bed

Citation
E. Fojt et al., Comparison of the breeding habitats of Little Ringed Plover Charadrius dubius and Kentish Plover Charadrius alexandrinus on a shingle bed, BIRD STUDY, 47, 2000, pp. 8-12
Citations number
12
Categorie Soggetti
Animal Sciences
Journal title
BIRD STUDY
ISSN journal
00063657 → ACNP
Volume
47
Year of publication
2000
Part
1
Pages
8 - 12
Database
ISI
SICI code
0006-3657(200003)47:<8:COTBHO>2.0.ZU;2-V
Abstract
The breeding habitat preferences of Kentish Plover and Little Ringed Plover were studied on a shingle bed. The location of each nest was measured as t he distance to the sea wall, nearest pond and nearest path. The habitat sur rounding nests was measured at radii of 0.15 m and 15 m as the proportional cover of shingle, gravel, sand, live and dead vegetation. When all variabl es were considered simultaneously, the differences between the habitats use d by the species were related to the cover of shingle within 15 m of the ne st and the distance to the sea wall. Nest sites located close to the sea wa ll and with high shingle cover almost always belonged to Kentish Plover, wh ile those more distant and with low shingle cover almost always belonged to Little Ringed Plover. Plovers used areas which had been stable for longer and hence were colonized by vegetation. This study suggests that management which maintains a high proportion of exposed substrate on shingle beds wil l increase their suitability for Kentish Plover.