Rhode Island’s population of piping
plovers – the rare, sand-colored shorebird that breeds primarily on
ocean-facing beaches – has grown significantly since it hit an all-time low of
fewer than 20 pairs in the early 1980s. But 2017 was a bad year for the birds.
The spring rains and a continuing battle with predators caused a decline in the
number of chicks the plovers produced.
According to Jennifer White, the
biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who monitors the plover
population, the statewide breeding population is about 100 pairs, though
On South County beaches, where most
of the birds’ breed, White counted 73 pairs of piping plovers this summer,
mostly at Trustom Pond National Wildlife Refuge in South Kingstown,
Quonochontaug Beach in Charlestown, and East Beach in Westerly. Another 23
pairs nested in Little Compton at Goosewing Beach Preserve, Briggs Beach and
Fogland Marsh Preserve. In addition, one pair nested at Third Beach in
Middletown.
White said that each nest, on
average, produced just .68 chicks, well below the 1.25 needed to maintain a
stable population and far below the 1.62 chicks produced last year. The one
bright spot was at Ninigret Conservation Area, where seven pairs of plovers
produced an average of 2.29 chicks per nest.
“Productivity this year was very
very low, we think because of a lot of predators, both avian and mammalian,”
she said, noting that crows, gulls, foxes and coyotes are the primary predators
on plover eggs and chicks. “At some sites, we saw canine footprints that went
from nest to nest.”
The chilly, wet spring also caused
many nests to fail.
“We had a lot of nest failures right
after the chicks hatched because of the rain,” White said. “The chicks can
forage as soon as they hatch, but they can’t thermoregulate, so they still rely
on their parents to keep them warm and dry. We had a lot of young chicks under
five days old when we had rain all day, and we lost those broods.”
Staff and volunteers from The Nature Conservancy monitor the piping plovers on Little Compton beaches. Tim Mooney,
the Conservancy’s director of communication, said those beaches faced similar
declines in chick productivity.
“I’m struck by how many things
really have to go right for the plovers to fledge chicks,” he said. “The
habitat conditions have to be right, the tides, storms, predators. It really
demonstrates how difficult it can be to bring a species back to healthy
self-sustaining numbers.”
Mooney and White also noted that the
abundant human beach-goers can also be a factor in the success or failure of
piping plover nests, though the beaches that attract the most human visitors
seldom have any plovers attempting to nest.
“It’s a perennial issue,” Mooney
said. “Every day there is potential for user conflict, and we do our best to
work with the visitors and the community to manage that threat.”
The Nature Conservancy and the Fish
and Wildlife Service conduct daily patrols of the beaches where the plovers
nest, rope off nesting areas, and place mesh “exclosures” around nests to keep
predators at bay while allowing the birds free access to and from their nest.
They also keep daily records of how many plovers are nesting at each beach, how
many eggs are laid, and how many chicks survive to fledge.
“This was a rough year, but we know
our management activities helped the birds,” White said. “But we still have a
lot of work to do to make sure people follow beach guidelines and are aware of
the birds, keep their dogs leashed, and carry out their food, which attracts
predators to the beach.”
Mooney said that an
important part of The Nature Conservancy’s monitoring efforts is pointing out
the plovers to beach visitors so they can develop an appreciation for the
birds.
“Once you’ve looked through a scope
and seen a chick run across the beach, you can’t help but want to do something
to help them,” he said. “That’s the job of our education folks – getting more
eyes behind that scope.”
Piping plovers are categorized as
threatened on the federal Endangered Species List. They breed on Atlantic
coastal beaches from Newfoundland to North Carolina. (A separate population
breeds in the Great Lakes region.) To be removed from the list, they must
achieve a chick productivity rate of 1.5 per pair for five consecutive years
and maintain a breeding population of 2,000 pairs.
“We’re committed to plover
restoration in Rhode Island, but we’re just one spot in the range of these
birds,” Mooney said. “The whole North Atlantic population would have to achieve
that level of chick productivity to be delisted, so while individual sites may
reach that target here and there, I don’t think we’re close to seeing the whole
region reach it.”
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