Piping Plover Population Increases Along Connecticut Shore

With all the shoveling of snow, sleet and ice we've done so far this winter, it may be difficult to remember that in the summer, shovels are also used to build sand castles at the beach. And during those trips to the shore, you may have noticed a small, sandy-colored shorebird with a black ring around its neck tippy-toeing along the beach.

According to state Department of Environmental Protection wildlife biologist Julie Victoria, there were a record 102 of those shorebirds, called piping plovers, that hatched and fledged along the Connecticut shoreline last summer. Those are good numbers for a species that was nearly hunted to extinction for its hat-decorating feathers, and now numbers about 2,000 pairs along the entire Atlantic seaboard.

Stormy weather during the crucial hatching time in May helped the fledglings reach birdhood, Victoria said.

"Rain was my friend," she said of the rainy weekends that kept the bird's No. 1 enemy, beachgoers, at home. "That was a critical time for chicks. Human disturbance is the biggest issue."
The 102 fledglings from 41 pairs of plovers are the highest number in the state since monitoring began in 1986, when the plovers and another shorebird, the least tern, were designated endangered species by the federal Fish and Wildlife Service. At that time, only 550 piping plover pairs nested from Maine to North Carolina.

Connecticut wasn't the only state that saw an increase in plover activity in 2008. Massachusetts also saw its highest numbers, with 264 pairs of plovers and 353 fledglings reaching for the sky. One of the most successful places was Sandwich and its swath of beaches along Cape Cod Bay, where 43 pairs of plovers produced 89 chicks.

Prior to the 2008 season, the highest number of piping plover fledglings recorded in our state was 79 in 2006. The lowest number was nine in 1993. But over the past five years, the number of fledglings per summer has averaged more than 70.

"It's been great the past several years and they seem to be rebounding," said David Gumbart, assistant director of land management for The Nature Conservancy's Connecticut chapter. He reported a total of 16 piping plovers fledged at Griswold Point, a milelong wind-swept peninsula off Old Lyme near the mouth of the Connecticut River.

Statewide, there are about 20 potential sites from Bridgeport to Groton for plovers and least terns to nest. In 2008, Silver Sands State Park in Milford had its first nesting pairs in years, Victoria said.

Unfortunately, least terns didn't have as good a year as the plovers. The 252 nesting pairs of least terns produced 76 fledglings. The least tern, a small bird similar to a gull, is pearly gray with white underparts, a black cap and a forked tail.

The least terns have later nesting seasons and are more impacted by the summer crowds at Connecticut's highly developed and privatized shoreline. Several years ago, some nests were ruined by large coastal storms in July, resulting in a low of 12 fledglings in 2006. The all-time high for nesting pairs was 849 in 1987.

"They are very territorial and like to dive-bomb people, and that takes a lot of energy away from nesting and the chicks," Victoria said.

Even though summer seems a long way off now, remember the piping plover and least tern when you're walking along the beach. Help a shorebird rebound.

Peter Marteka | Nature's Path