Beware of Cotton Balls Running Down the Beach

If you are planning to enjoy a day at the beach this weekend, or for the next several weeks, please watch your step. June and July are months for little Piping Plover chicks to run up and down a beach in search for food. The chicks are tiny, about the size of a cotton ball with a small beak and downy fair feathers, helping them to blend with sand and shells.

It’s an important time in the life of a little Piping Plover. Unfortunately, it also happens to coincide with tourist season, an important time for the economy of many coastal communities. If you see or hear shorebirds, give them some space.  The small chicks can disappear quickly in the sand and are easily stepped on.

Soon after Black Locust trees have flowered and Summer Flounder or fluke have arrived in local bays or estuarine waters around New York Harbor, including Sandy Hook Bay and Raritan Bay, young birds start to appear on the ocean beaches.

Piping Plover nests, which are often just shallow scrapes on a sand dune lined with pebbles and shells and located near other shorebird nests, like terns or oystercatchers, begin to get full of life. Eggs start to hatch and tiny birds, commonly appearing as cotton balls with beaks, leave the nest within a few hours of hatching. The chicks are precocial, which means the little shorebirds can run around and feed themselves within hours of hatching.

And run they do. Just like little kids. Tiny Piping Plovers run up and down on oceanside beaches, from their nest to the edge of the ocean, in search of food, usually small marine worms, crustaceans or other small invertebrates.

But Piping Plover parents are no slackers. The chicks are not far from the watchful eyes of their parents. The adults take turns watching over their chicks and defend them when needed from predators. When predators, including gulls, crows, or foxes, come too close, Piping Plover chicks instinctively  squat motionless on the sand while the parents attempt to attract the attention of the intruders away from the young, often by calling out loudly and pretending to be easy prey, a bird with a broken wing. Once a predator is relocated far away from the nest, the adult plovers fly away and return to the relative safely of the nest area with their chicks.

Both male and female Piping Plovers will care for their young. Generally two to four little plovers will be cared for and protected for about a month, or until the young are able to fly, normally 21 to 35 days after hatching.

I have seen quite a few young Piping Plovers scurrying near the Atlantic Ocean within the last few days at Sandy Hook, located near the entrance to New York Harbor and the most northern part of the Jersey Shore. The sight of new life is always a happy sign, especially for small pale Piping Plovers.

Because Piping Plovers like to nest on ocean beaches that are often located in busy tourist areas or near highly developed areas, disturbance by people is high. As a consequence, populations in New York and New Jersey are considered endangered or threatened.

The threats are many within this urban-suburban jungle for little shorebirds. Commercial, residential, and recreational development have decreased the amount of coastal habitat available for Piping Plovers to nest and feed.  Excessive disturbance by humans may cause the parents to desert the nest, exposing eggs or chicks to the summer sun and predators. Interruption of feeding may stress juvenile birds during critical periods in their development. Pets, especially dogs, may harass the birds. Developments near beaches provide food that attracts increased numbers of predators such as raccoons, skunks, and foxes. Storm tides may inundate nests. It’s no wonder there are only a small number of Piping Plovers.

In New York State, there are only about 200 nesting pairs of Piping Plovers stretched out on Long Island’s sandy beaches from Montauk to Breezy Point, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens, located on the western end of the Rockaway peninsula, between Rockaway Inlet and Jamaica Bay.

Along the Jersey Shore, from Cape May to Sandy Hook, there are far fewer. Only around 120 nesting pairs of Piping Plovers. According to NJ Fish and Wildlife, Northern Monmouth County, NJ, from Sandy Hook down to Long Branch, accounts for about 45% of the statewide total for nesting Piping Plovers, the largest of any coastal county in the state. For whatever reason, the little shorebirds seem to have a preference to nest near the hustle and bustle of New York Harbor.

Even still, the Piping Plover remains one of the region’s most endangered or threatened species. It doesn’t take much for a nest to fail. Since both male and female parent plovers share incubation duties, both of them need to be around for the nest to be successful. If something happens to one of the parents before their eggs hatch, the other is likely to abandon the nest.

How can you help protect Piping Plovers? Here are some simple actions you can do to help protect the home and habitat for the endangered Piping Plover this summer:

•    Observe and obey the closed area fences. Watch and enjoy Plovers from a distance.

•    Always keep dogs and other pets on leashes and out of areas of the beach closed to pets.

•    Don’t feed wildlife or leave food on the beach. This increases the population of predators and attracts them to the area where they may also prey on Piping Plover eggs, chicks or adults.

•    If you find a Plover family outside of the fencing give them some space to move and feel safe.

•    If you see anyone harassing Piping Plovers please report it to local law enforcement officials.

•    Support local wildlife organizations that help to protect the home and habitat for shorebirds. One of the best in New Jersey is the non-profit Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey, which helps to preserve rare and imperiled species of wildlife that live and breed in, and migrate through New Jersey.

For more information, pictures and year-round sightings of wildlife in or near Sandy Hook Bay, Raritan Bay, and Lower New York Bay, please check out my blog entitled, Nature on the Edge of New York City at http://natureontheedgenyc.blogspot.com/