Shorebirds at Boca Chica
The Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge includes the Rio Grande River Delta, which protects large, migratory shorebird aggregations attracted to the mild winters, shallow waters and rich marine invertebrate community of the Delta.
In collaboration with Dr. David Hicks (UTRGV, School of Earth, Environment and Marine Sciences), since 2015 we have been conducting ecological monitoring of a threatened shorebird community in the Delta of the Rio Grande and Gulf of Mexico shoreline. The roughly 20 square mile area is a mosaic of protected areas: Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge, Boca Chica State Park and Las Palomas Wildlife Management Area and hosts an extremely diverse shorebird community under increasing pressure from development. However, there has been little systematic monitoring of shorebird populations in the region. The area is home to an important population of threatened Piping Plovers, a small shorebird which migrates thousands of miles each year to and from breeding sites the northern Central Plains. A significant portion have been given unique color-band combinations allowing researchers to estimate age and site fidelity.
Uniquely banded Piping Plover catches a polychaete worm on the Gulf of Mexico shoreline at Boca Chica, LRGVNWR.