Twenty-eight Year Study of Upland Sandpiper Breeding Population in New York Steven D. Garber Sammy Chevalier Jay Richard Cohen Department of Ecology P.O. Box 356 133 Broome Avenue Evolution and Nat. Resources Ingram, TX 78025 Atlantic Beach, NY 11509 Rutgers University Piscataway, NJ 08855-1059 INTRODUCTION The United States Fish and Wildlife Service de- of a plane crash from birdsgetting sucked through scribes the Upland Sandpiper (Bartramia airplane engines. Whenever possible, we conduct Iongicauda)as a migratorynon-game bird of man- our wildlife management methods in ways that agement concern in the Northeast(Carter 1992). enable us to protectboth people and birds.One of UplandSandpiper populations have declined sig- our many effortsto protectbirds at JFK is reported nificantlyfrom Ohio through the northeasternstates here,where we havedocumented an UplandSand- sincethe 1940s (Peterjohnand Rice 1991). In New piper populationliving at one of the biggest, busi- York, accordingto the NorthAmerican Breeding est airports in the world in the middle of New York ' BirdSurvey, UplandSandpiper numbers declined City. by 83 percentduring the past 30 years (from1966 to 1996), representinga declineof 5.73% per year Upland Sandpipers did not occur on the habitat (P=.3645, N=28; N = the total numberof breeding where the airport is presently located before the birdsurvey routes where UplandSandpipers were airportwas constructed.Originally, most of the over detected in New York). These numberswere cal- 5,000 acres that currently comprise JFK were a culated from unpublished data provided by mixture of fresh and saltwater wetlands. The near- Pardieckand Peterjohn(pers. com. 1997). est populationof Upland Sandpipers that histori- cally occurred in the area was found on the At John F. Kennedy InternationalAirport (JFK), Hempstead Plainsof Long Island, whichformerly locatedon the east shoreof Jamaica Bay in New comprised approximately 60,000 acres (Garber YorkCity, there is a significantUpland Sandpiper 1997). Hempstead Plains was one of the best re- populationabout which we have collected data for maininghabitats for UplandSandpipers in the John decades(Garber and Chevalier1996), creatinga F. Kennedy InternationalAirport area until the first valuable source of information useful to those in- part of the century, before the region was devel- terestedin managingthis species on or off airports. oped and beforethe airportwas built. In the 1920s Effortsto attractbreeding Upland Sandpipers from John T. Nicholsestimated at least 25 pairs bred the JFK populationto establisha satellitepopula- on the HempsteadPlains (Bull 1975,1985); but by tion at Floyd Bennett Field, on the west shore of the early 1940s, the Hempstead Plains population JamaicaBay, have been unsuccessful.Upland had only four to six remainingpairs (Cruickshank Sandpipershave done well at JFK,and we recently 1942); afterwardthe populationdisappeared. Cur- documenteda breedingpopulation at NewarkAir- rently,JFK has approximately20 breedingpairs of port in Newark, New Jersey, where we are man- Upland Sandpipers. aging for them based on what we have learned from the methods used at JFK. We have worked JFK is very close to where the Hempstead Plains with birdpopulations at JFK, LaGuardia,and New- used to extend. Much of JFK's habitat is created ark airportsin an ongoingeffort to reducethe risk artificiallyfrom primarilysandy dredge spoils, which Jul. - Sep. 1997 NorthAmerfcan Bird Bander Page 109 were built approximatelysix feet above sea level on nesting Upland Sandpipers in south-central (Garber 1995). The airportwas built in stages, North Dakota (Bowen and Kruse 1993). primarilyin the 1930s and 1940s, with one last run- way extensionadded on in the 1960s. The goals METHODS were to make a flat, dry region suitable for taxi- ways, runways,and buildings.Although upland From 1969 through 1997, bird banding has been meadow habitat was created where there used to conductedat JFK under the permitsheld by Jay be wetlands,to someextent, it appearsthese up- Richard Cohen, Sammy Chevalier, and Steven landmeadows replaced the originalnatural upland Garber. From 1969 through1987, 410 Upland meadowsof the HempsteadPlains. It couldbe that Sandpiperswere banded at JFK; all were banded the birds breeding at JFK are descendantsof the by Cohen and Chevalier on aeronauticalparts of birdsthat usedto breedat HempsteadPlains, and the airport(near runwaysand taxiways).The Up- the birdsmoved to JFK whenthe HempsteadPlains landSandpipers that were caught and bandedwere were fragmentedand reduced in size, while simul- primarilyyoung that could not fly. Juvenile birds taneously,JFK was increasingin size.Today, Up- were chased down and captured by hand. Adults land Sandpipersbreed only at a relativelysmall that couldbe caughtbecause they were more likely number of discrete, local sites, and these sites to come close enough to a person when protect- usually have a small number of birds. ing their young were chased down and captured by net. The effort was not equal each year, so the Throughouttheir entire range, which includes North yearly numbersprimarily represent relative effort. and SouthAmerica, the total numberof breeding Populationestimates were made using the spot pairs is quite small. For these reasons, and be- mappingmethod. Bandingdata and observations causeJFK has one of the largestbreeding popu- by biologistsat the airportare presentedin an ef- lationsin the East, as well as one of the most sig- fort to determine the historyof this species at the nificantlong-term data bases on the species, we airportduring our tenures here. continueto monitorthe speciesat the airport.In NorthAmerica, it breedsas far south as Virginia. RESULTS To date, thisspecies has not representeda signifi- cant hazardto aircraftin lightof the low numberof Two of the Upland Sandpipersbanded here were individuals that have been struck at JFK over the recoveredsubsequently, both at the airport.Each years. Even thoughthere has been just one strike was banded at JFK when they were too young to from January 1979 throughFebruary 1997 (it oc- fly. The first was banded on 6 July 1976 and was curredon 30 August1996, withoutany damageto recovered 8 May 1978. The second was banded the aircraft),we are making every effort possible 12 June 1981 and recovered 28 May 1990. We to record relevant information about the birds at believe the latter bird is a longevityrecord for the the airportso othersinterested in this species' man- species; the hiatus between times captured was agement mightbenefit from our experience. nine years. Most of the researchon breedinghabits, repro- The total number of Upland Sandpipersbanded ductive success, habitat requirements, home and recoveredat JFK each year is as follows: range, movements,coloniality, and effectsof graz- 1969-2; 1970-9; 1971-19; 1972-12; 1973-6; ing was done on midwesternUpland Sandpiper 1974-13; 1975-8; 1976-22; 1977-22; 1978-36; populations.Studies of the species'breeding biol- 1979-39; 1980-30; 1981-7; 1982-32; 1983-48; ogy have been conducted (Higgins and Kirsch 1984-6; 1985-0; 1986-14; 1987-2; 1990-1. 1975, Kirschand Higgins 1976, Ailes 1979, Ailes All were banded when they were too young to fly 1980), andtheir homerange and dailymovements except for one adult in 1971, one adult in 1977, were studiedelsewhere (Ailes and Toepfer 1977). two adults in 1978, one adult in 1979, and one adult In addition,coloniality, reproductive success, and in 1990. The number banded appears to drop off habitat interactions have been studied in the Mid- markedlyafter 1983, which may be a result of the west (Bowen 1976), as have the effectsof grazing grasslandmanagement at the airport.It has been suggestedthat it was after 1983 that the grass was Page 110 North Ame#can Bird Bander Vol. 22 No. 3 Figure 1. UPLAND SANDPIPER BANDING DATES If thebird was banded and recaptured, it is followed by an R. Thenumber of birds banded or recapturedisin parentheses, if there is no number in parentheses,thenthe number banded was 1 1969 June22, 1977 June25, 1981(2) July2, 1969(2) June26, 1977 June29, 1981 1970 June28, 1977(2) July27, 1981 June11, 1970 (6) June29, 1977 1982 June24, 1979 July6, 1977(2) May31, 1982 (2) June26, 1970 1978 June1, 1982 (2) July8, 1970 May5, 1978 R June2, 1982(5) 1971 June1, 1978(2) June6, 1982 June11, 1971 June6, 1978(2) June8, 1982(6) June14, 1971 June14, 1978 (3) June9, 1982 June15, 1971 June15, 1978 (2) June10, 1982 (3) June16, 1971 (5) June16, 1978 (3) June11, 1982 June18, 1971 (3) June19, 1978 June14, 1982 (3) June22, 1971 June20, 1978 (6) June16, 1982 (2) June23, 1971 (2) June21, 1978 (3) June19, 1982 June25, 1971 (2) June24, 1978 (3) June20, 1982 (2) June27, 1971 (3) June28, 1978 (2) June23, 1982 1972 June29, 1978(2) June25, 1982 June7, 1972(2) June30, 1978 (3) June26, 1982 June9, 1972 July5, 1978 1983 June15, 1972 (7) July8, 1978 June8, 1983(3) June19, 1972 July24, 1978 June9, 1983(7) June20, 1972 1979 June10, 1983 (3) 1973 June3, 1979(2) June13, 1983(3) June25, 1972 June7, 1979(3) June14, 1983 (5) June26, 1972 (3) June12, 1979 June16, 1983 (3) July5, 1972 June14, 1979 (4) June17, 1983 (4) July11, 1973 June16, 1979 (6) June22, 1983 1974 June17, 1979 June26, 1983 June12, 1974 (3) June20, 1979 (5) June27, 1983 (2) June13, 1974 (3) June21, 1979 June30, 1983 (5) June14, 1974 (4) June22, 1979 (4) July1, 1983(5) June18, 1974 (2) June25, 1979 (3) July3, 1983(2) June26, 1974 June26, 1979 July4, 1983 1975 June27, 1979(4) July9, 1983 June24, 1975 June28, 1979 July11, 1983 June25, 1975 July3, 1979(2) July27,