HELPING PLOVERS

According to the Maine Audubon Society, beachgoers can help plovers if they:

Keep dogs on a leash and well away from plover nest. Perceiving even leashed dogs as a threat, adult piping plovers will try to draw dogs away from the nest, leaving eggs vulnerable to predators and the elements.

Fly kites far from nests. Plovers perceive them as predatory birds.

Fill in holes in the sand. Chicks can be trapped and die even in shallow holes.

Pick up trash. Garbage draws predators like seagulls and crows.

Give piping plovers space. If you see a marked nest, find another spot to put the beach blanket.

People can also help out by volunteering to monitor piping plovers. E-mail [email protected] to find out more.

A CLOSER LOOK

The piping plover is a small, sand-colored bird with orange legs and black bands around the forehead and base of neck. Chicks have been likened to tiny wind-up toys or cotton balls with legs. Young and adult plovers run in short stops and starts and often blend into the sandy background of beaches. The plover’s call, a bell-like whistle, is often heard before a bird is seen. When a nest is approached by a predator, parents often try to attract the attention of the intruder by feigning a broken wing.

Range: Coastal beaches from Newfoundland to North Carolina. Plovers typically lay four eggs that hatch in about 25 days.

Endangered status: Plovers were common along the Atlantic Coast for most of the 19th century, but commercial hunting for feathers to decorate hats nearly wiped them out. Following the passage of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, plovers recovered to a 20th-century peak in the 1940s. Incrased development and beach recreation after World War II caused the population decline that led to Endangered Species Act protection in 1986. The population has more than doubled in the last 20 years, but still stands at less than 2,000 pairs.

Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Beachgoers are being asked to be extra careful to avoid disturbing nests of the endangered piping plover, which is enduring its worst summer in nearly 20 years.

Biologists say only 19 piping plover pairs currently are nesting on southern and midcoast Maine beaches – down from 35 pairs last year and a high of 66 in 2002. Plovers are listed as “endangered” in the state of Maine and as “threatened” by the federal government.

“The situation is severe,” said Judy Camuso, assistant regional wildlife biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. “The numbers are the worst we’ve seen since 1991.”

According to Jordan Kramer, a Maine Audubon seasonal biologist working on Maine’s Piping Plover and Least Tern Recovery Project, there are three possible reasons why piping plovers are having a difficult time nesting this year.

First, spring storms last year made it difficult for piping plovers to successfully fledge young, which can deter the birds from nesting in the same sites the following year.

Second, Kramer said, after several years of declining numbers of young, there could also simply be fewer birds to return to Maine.

And lastly, predators such as foxes and dogs forced some piping plover pairs to abandon their nests this season.

Experts say the next few weeks are critical if chicks are to hatch in time to be able to migrate in the fall.

In Scarborough, piping plovers have traditionally nested on Higgins Beach and Pine Point Beach, said Town Manager Ron Owens.

“We don’t have any down at Pine Point this year and I think there were a couple of nests on Higgins Beach, (but) I think predators pretty much wiped them out,” he said. “I think (human) activity has grown, more so on Pine Point, which has not been as conducive to plovers as it used to be.”

However, according to the Maine Audubon Society, there are still some piping plovers nesting on Western Beach and Ferry Beach in Scarborough.

Piping plovers are also nesting on seven other Maine beaches: Wells Beach in Wells, Crescent Surf and Parsons beaches in Kennebunk, Goose Rocks Beach in Kennebunkport, Goosefare Brook Beach in Saco, Ram Island in Cape Elizabeth, and Reid State Park in Georgetown.