Plover Families

     I am so invested at this point in the Piping Plovers down at the beach and my volunteering with NYC Plover Project. Babies keep arriving and by then the real challenges come into play as the chicks are mobile hours after hatching and predators loom in the night, while by day, most beach goers have no idea what a plover even is. I have had my heart filled and emptied in a matter of 24 hours, chicks emerge and they can disappear the next day. There is something special you feel in watching these babies and their parents work so hard to ensure survival.

    Piping Plovers are gentle looking birds, and honestly compared to some other birds nesting nearby, like the common terns, their attempts to protect themselves and their chicks seem a heck of a lot gentler too. Unlike the repeated dive bombing of your face and head by the terns, most piping plover prefer to take the distraction approach, where they feign injury and attempt to lure you off in another direction, away from their family. They are a joy to watch (from a  respectful distance ensuring that chicks can feed and not feel threatened) and I am hoping for as many chicks as possible to fledge.

The adults will defend their chicks against other Piping Plovers who are not part of the family. The bird on the left is an interloper.

And the parent gives chase with open wings.

After a crouch that looks menacing, the interloper took flight and the parent chased them until they were a satisfying distance away from their chicks.

This is about as fierce as piping plovers typically get.

After the interloper was given chase, the family proceeded to lead their chicks to get to the water.

As a mother myself, I find nothing more satisfying than providing a good meal to my toddler and watching her happily gobble it up.
So watching these plover chicks touch their toes to the water and have the chance to eat, it made me SO happy. I had that same feeling, the joy of nourishment to help them grow.

Plover chicks have to get to the waters edge in order to feed. The parents have to lead their whole family down the beach from the dunes to the water. In this endeavor they must avoid gulls, crabs, and people the entire way there and back again.

Any time a person walking the beach approached, the adults would shuffle their chicks back up the beach away from the path of people. And maybe bring them back down again if no other people followed.
You so often think, "but what harm am I doing, just walking?"
It's like feeding a baby but having to take the spoon away again and again, every time a disruption, a person, comes by. How many people walk the beach? How many people disrupt their feeding, taking the spoon from the mouths of babies.

But most folks aren't even aware of these little ones, they are smaller than a golf ball when only a few days old and can be very hard to spot if you are unfamiliar with them.

Best things to do, to help these little fellas and others along?
Leave your dog home (the A/C is better for them anyway).
Don't bring your kite.
Leave no trace, bring all your trash home with you to dispose of properly.
Respect the string lines, keep out of the dunes and read signs posted to follow the rules.

This little one was 14 days old when I snapped this picture. These bird cannot fly until they are approximately 28 days old.
So until they they are on the run and reliant on their parents protection.

While 28 days is fast, its excruciatingly slow as you are monitoring these birds on a day-to-day basis.

Nearly the same size as its parents, these chicks grow quickly! Which is also why it's so important for them to get to the water to eat.

Every little meal is a big accomplishment for these plover chicks.