Daily Archives: Monday,September 28, 2009

Pluvialis squatarola: Black-Bellied Plover- The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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Pluvialis squatarola at Race Rocks, September 28, 2009.
This is our first photo of this plover, taken by Ryan Murphy

Ryan photographed these plovers in their non-breeding plumage  (missing the black belly!) on the lawn at Race Rocks. The top one o was here on March 11, 2010.

These are long-distance migratory birds. They were here as a stopover on the migration, fall and spring. They breed on the arctic tundra and winter on sandy beaches and wetlands in coastal areas from central North America through southern South America. They use the run, stop and stab at the food behaviour common to many plovers.

 

Domain Eukarya
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Subphylum Vertebrata
Class Aves
Order Charadriiformes
Family Charadriidae
Subfamily Charadrinae
Genus Pluvialis
Species squatarola
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Common Name: Black Bellied Plover

Other Members of the Class Aves at Race Rocks.

taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
April 2009 Ryan Murphy

Sea Lion Injuries

Aside

Ryan Murphy took these photos of some of the injured marine mammals showing up at Race Rocks this year . See more on his Fickr Site .

rmsept282009injury

I heard a very interesting interview on CBC Radio today dealing with the presence of empathy in mammals. This image would then appear to depict “pre-concern”, a concept new to me!

An article entitled “Sea lions at Victoria’s Race Rocks injured by debris, boats” just ran in Victoria’s Times Colonist that quoted me. See it here:https://www.racerocks.ca/racerock/news/debris.htm

Anna Hall, a marine zoologist also quoted in the article suggests showing graphic images to children to warn them of the dangers posed to sea lions. This series is a response to that suggestion and not biased propaganda as I have been accused of.

This image summarizes the article’s headline. Two California sea lions, one with some marine junk entangled around its neck (a death sentence), and another whose front flipper has been nearly severed by a boat’s propeller (it is currently wasting away from not being able to hunt for food).

An update from a NOAA research biologist and a veterinarian who specializes in marine mammals: Both experts agree the wound has been present for so long that the original source of the trauma is impossible to say with scientific certainty. Possible causes include orca bite, entanglement, and boat strike.
The sliced flipper has been cautiously identified as either a whale or orca attack, or a boat strike.