Meet our dunlin. She was found along the Cape Cod Canal in 2003 with a fractured left wing. Vets at the Cape Wildlife Center rehabilitated her before she found a permanent home in our exhibit. She can fly a little but not well enough to make her annual breeding migration from as far south as Texas all the way to northern Hudson Bay in Canada. This picture captures her in her winter plumage, check back soon to see her in her beautiful breeding colors!




-Kate

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Labels: dunlin, dunlin migration, Meet our Shorebird Collection

Our exhibit holds two sanderlings, a male and a female. The male comes to us from a former exhibit and can fly very well. The female was found in the winter of 2007 on a beach on Long Island. Vets in New York discovered severe fractures of her radius and ulna and successfully rehabilitated her, although she can not fly. She therefore has found a permanent home in our exhibit. You can tell her apart from the male because of her slightly droopy right wing. They are seen here in their winter plumage. They're currently in the midst of their spring molt so check back in a few months to see them in their full breeding plumage.



-Kate

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Labels: Kate, Meet our Shorebird Collection, new england aquarium shorebird exhibit, sanderling

Labels: Kate, Meet our Shorebird Collection, Virginia Rail

Our piping plover "Pink" hatched on New Seabury Beach in June of 2003. Shortly after he was observed with an injured wing. Once captured he was brought to a rehabilitation center on Cape Cod where two breaks were found in his left wing. It was determined he would never fly again.

Fortunately he has found a permanent home in our shorebird exhibit along with our other piping plover, May, and five other species of shorebirds. He will be six years old this summer!





-Kate

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Labels: Kate, Meet our Shorebird Collection, pink, piping plover

There are two piping plovers in our exhibit, both are males. Piping plovers are a threatened species in Massachusetts, yet our state supports 15 percent of the world's population with approximately 550 of the Atlantic coast's 1,800 nests. Both our birds were injured in the wild and cannot fly.

Labels: Kate, Meet our Shorebird Collection, piping plover