USGS 2011 International Piping Plover Census at Beaver and High Islands

Why this source matters

The USGS Data Series 922 appendix is the cleanest standardized comparison yet held for named Beaver and High Island shore segments. The International Piping Plover Breeding Census ran from June 4 through June 17, 2011, and covered known or potential breeding habitat across the U.S. Great Lakes. Michigan site selection was based primarily on the 2006 census, known breeding locations, and potential habitat; some sites were omitted for lack of access or current lack of habitat, while a few were added after recent observations.

The Michigan comparison table lists 39, 47, 65, 101, and 90 total adults in the 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006, and 2011 census windows. These are standardized census-window totals, not annual population estimates.

Beaver and High Island site rows

The appendix names six Charlevoix County survey segments:

• Bonner’s Bluff/Landing, Beaver Island — 3.7 km
• Donegal Bay and McCauley Point — 3.2 km
• High Island NE Spit — 2.0 km
• High Island NW Side — 3.5 km
• Lookout Point, Beaver Island — 1.0 km
• McFaddin Point/Green’s Bay, Beaver Island — 2.0 km

Every one of these six segments recorded zero breeding pairs and zero adults in the 2011 census. Several rows list Piping Plovers in one or more prior census years, so the result is best read as a time-stamped census observation along named shore segments, not as a conclusion that the habitat had never been occupied.

High Island has an important qualification: the report says it was not officially censused in 2006, although a pair was observed when the site was checked. The observer could not assign that pair to the NW Side versus the NE Spit. That warning matters when comparing the USGS table with the earlier Powell–Cuthbert field study and when joining the evidence to shoreline maps.

Archipelago coverage limit

This appendix is not a complete island-by-island inventory. It names Beaver and High Island segments but does not list Fox Island, Garden Island, Hog Island, Whiskey Island, or every other island in the archipelago. Their absence from this particular site list is not a negative observation. The record is therefore useful for connectivity—linking earlier nesting locations, later standardized monitoring, and mapped shoreline segments—while preserving the survey-design limit.

The report supplies map numbers and named shore segments but no machine-readable site coordinates. The project retains the names, dates, lengths, census counts, prior-year flags, and source page anchors without creating points or polygons.

Added 3 August 2026. Recent changes