Sanderling Plan - Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network

Predation
o Feeding and danger ecology: understanding limiting factors – i.e., where, when, and how
much predation on Sanderling limits their populations (Fernandez and Lank 2008);
o Determine effects of the increase in predator populations. These increases may cause
migrating and wintering shorebirds to avoid some sites and decrease their stopover time
at others (Butler et al. 2003, Lank et al. 2003).
o Effect of habitat structure (perch availability and perch attributes) on falcon disturbance
and predation rates (see Dzialak et al. 2007). The location of high, well-situated predator
perches could affect the survival of prey populations in open habitats (Andersson et al.
2009), and perches are increasingly (though inadvertently) being provided by human
development projects (e.g., well-situated, tall telephone poles next to prime foraging
areas). If these perches facilitate increased predation rates, then it would benefit
Sanderlings and other shorebirds if planned development projects were guided to place
structures away from shorebird areas.
Human-caused Disturbance
o Determine effects of human-caused disturbance; in assessing human disturbance impacts,
measure the impacts of human disturbance on fitness rather than on the severity of
behavioral responses (Yasue 2006).
o Determine minimum buffer distance to maintain and enhance shorebird use of foraging
and roosting areas.
POPULATIONS
Status and dynamics
o Develop and improve spatially explicit flyway-level monitoring programs (coordinated
ones, such as the Program for Regional and International Shorebird Monitoring
[PRISM]), during migration and winter.
o As PRISM is being developed/implemented, expand existing surveys within an analytical
framework, and strengthen collaborative networks of researchers/observers to facilitate
WHSRN – Sanderling Conservation Plan, February 2010, v1.1 61