piping plover cape hatteras national seashore 2016

On a coast where human disturbance and predation are pervasive, Good Harbor hosted a pair of nesting plovers in 2016 and again in 2017.

No one knew whether the eggs would even hatch, given this inauspicious start. By the middle of May, she’d laid four eggs. The male dug a scrape in the gravel while the female sat nearby, camouflaged on a white line delineating a parking space. Harassed again and again by loose dogs running on the busy stretch of shore, the pair gave up and fled to the nearby 950-car parking lot. Piping Plovers typically nest in the sand sheltered by dunes, but for these two, a home on the beach was not to be. They foraged in the wind and lingering snow, and a pair began courting, the male digging nest scrapes in the sand for his mate’s approval. In early April of last year, Gloucester, Massachusetts, resident Kim Smith discovered three Piping Plovers had arrived, exhausted, on the city’s Good Harbor Beach. Find Ways to Get Involved for Earth Month.AUDUBON BIRD GUIDE Search for Birds in Your Area.

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Piping plover cape hatteras national seashore 2016