Mtn Plovers and Eared Grebe mortality count
November 26th, 2011 by Ryan Carle
Date of sighting: 11/25/11
There were 3 Mountain Plovers at 10 Mile Beach yesterday when my parents (Dave and Janet) and Kathy Duvall went out to do a survey of dead eared grebes.
We walked several mile and half mile stretches of the lakeshore (measuring using GPS) and counted grebes to try to get an estimate of the total that may have died in the recent die-off.
10 Mile Beach (1 mile): 68
Old Marina (1/2 mile): 103
South Tufa to Navy Beach (1/2 mile): 130
Navy Beach to east (1/2 mile): 6
From these numbers we averaged 61 dead eared grebes per half mile, and extrapolated to estimate 4,896 total around the lakeshore.
This is assuming a 40 mile lakeshore–please let me know if this is incorrect.
Ilene Mandelbaum noted that there were many dead grebes on E. Navy Beach on the 18th, but very few on the 25th, as they either disappeared or were blown by the wind to other areas.
This count certainly isn’t definitive, but, I think, it’s better than no count.
If you’d like to see the data, contact me or Janet Carle.
This post was submitted by Ryan Carle .
