CALL FOR NOMINATIONS:

The meeting itinerary, planning for Society events, and running the business of the Society rests with the Executive and the directions provided by the members at the Annual General and Special meetings. The health of the Society requires members who are willing to serve periodically on the Executive. These positions run from the January meeting of the election to the subsequent January meeting. While it seemsearly to be looking at 1996, the next newsletter will be too late for the officialcall for nominations. So, if you would be interested in serving on the Executive, please contact Ray Cooke (894-9695) or Barb Currie (evenings 675-3192) .

PIPING PLOVBR 1995: by Linda Thomas, P.E.I. National Park

There were 12 breeding pair of Piping Plover in the P.E.I. National park in 1995. Twenty-four chicks fledged at 20 days of age for a fledging success rate of 2.0 chicks per pair. Two chicks were lost after the 20 day mark so realistically 22 juveniles should be on their way south.

It is difficult to call this a successful year when we were dealing with the smallest number of breeding pair ever recorded in P.E.I. National Park. However, the number of chicks fledged at 24 is excellent compared with 12 in 1993 and 16 in 1994. Hopefully this will be a positive trend for next year.

There were 24 nesting attempts, 15 of which were unsuccessful. Foxes and avian predators were responsible for eight of the nests lost. Despite flood rescue attempts, four nests were lost to flooding. Two nests were lost to blowing sand and one nest was lost to human disturbance.

Six chicks hatched from fostering attempts. When abandoned eggs or flooded eggs are recovered, they are artificially incubated. If a situation occurs where a pair has lost their eggs to predation or flooding and suitable eggs are being incubated they are used to replace the lost eggs. Therefore these six chicks were given a new chance at life.

Your readers may be interested in was an encounter I had with an immature Bald Eagle during the season. From the bridge at Covehead I could see the eagle sitting near the fore dune tossing fairly large pieces of driftwood around with its beak. Since there were two plover nests within 40 metres of the eagle, I thought it my duty to push it from their territory. The eagle was not anxious to move. I approached it cautiously but it would only hop a few feet closer to the water. When it finally decided to leave the area, it flew over me. While I had always respected the eagle's grace in flight, I gained a new respect for its size and power.

MASSIVE CANADA GOOSE POPULATION DECLINE:

Joint Canada - United States surveys of Canada Geese breeding areas in the Ungava Region of Quebec revealed that only 29,000 pairs had nested this year. In addition, egg and chick mortality had been very high and these nests produced very few young. This finding follows poor nesting seasons in 1992 and 1993 and represents a decline from 118,000 in 1988 and 40,000 in 1994. They substantiate observations that wintering geese populations in these areas are also down. The bad news confirmed observations by some .

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