Last updated: March 5, 2021
Article
Park Staff & Partners Count Overwintering Snowy Plovers at Point Reyes
NPS / Matt Lau
February 2021 - Although breeding western snowy plovers get most of the attention at Point Reyes National Seashore, the breeding season isn’t the only time to see plovers in the park. In fact, many more of these federally threatened shorebirds may be seen snatching invertebrates off of the park’s beaches in the winter. How many more? The San Francisco Bay Area Inventory & Monitoring Network only monitors Point Reyes' breeding plovers and Golden Gate National Recreation Area's overwintering plovers. But wintering plovers at Point Reyes do still get counted.
Almost every winter dating back to 2002-2003, the US Fish & Wildlife Service has organized western snowy plover “winter window surveys” to help track the species’ population trends. During a one-week period, volunteers and biologists take to beaches from Washington to Southern California to count every plover they can find. In 2020, the range-wide winter population of 4,613 was the highest it had been since 2015. If this year’s Point Reyes counts are any indication, that number may be higher still for 2021.
In fact, Point Reyes wildlife staff and staff from Point Blue Conservation Science counted a total of 255 wintering plovers on park beaches this January. That’s 32 more than last year, and more than they’ve found during any previous winter window survey! Of those plovers, the team counted 141 at Limantour Beach, also a new record. Numbers on the Great Beach, though not record-shattering, were up as well compared to recent years. Part of the increase may be due to an influx of wintering plovers from Sonoma beaches; their winter flock numbers were slightly down this year. Still, that can’t explain the whole increase, and doesn’t diminish biologists’ excitement at seeing so many plovers on park beaches!
For more information
- San Francisco Bay Area Network Western Snowy Plover Monitoring webpage
- Pacific Coast Science & Learning Center Western Snowy Plovers webpage
- Contact Snowy Plover Ecologist Matt Lau