Overview
Hello Ploverites!
We now have four confirmed snowy plover fledglings this season! One chick from Limantour Beach and three chicks from North Beach have survived to 28 days after hatching. The males from these broods will likely depart these fledglings to find new mates and establish new nests. The fledglings may stick around or may disperse and fly to other sites along the coast.
Point Reyes National Seashore biologists, including myself, collaborated with Point Blue Conservation Science to conduct research on climate-smart conservation of western snowy plovers. This resulted in a peer-reviewed manuscript that will be published soon in the Human-Wildlife Interactions scientific journal and as a news brief article in NPS's Park Science e-magazine! The peer-reviewed article will soon be published in Human–Wildlife Interactions. The Park Science article will be published on June 22.
Addendum June 26, 2022:
Lau, Matthew J. (2022) "Western Snowy Plovers Could Face Multiple Threats from Climate Change," Park Science: Vol. 36: Iss. 1. Available at: https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/western-snowy-plovers-could-face-multiple-threats-from-climate-change.htm (accessed 26 June 2022)
Lau, Matthew J.; Becker, Benjamin H.; and Press, David T. (2022) "Common Raven Impacts on the Productivity of a Small Breeding Population of Snowy Plovers," Human–Wildlife Interactions: Vol. 15: Iss. 3, Article 13. Available at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/hwi/vol15/iss3/13 (accessed 26 June 2022)
Not much has changed since last week, but here are updates organized by beach sites:
Kehoe (K):
There are two active nests on north Kehoe Beach. Both are projected to hatch by mid-July.
Abbotts Lagoon Restoration Area (RA):
There are currently no active nests within the RA. There was a significant amount of nesting activity and several pairs here very early in the season, but they seem to have dispersed.
Abbotts Lagoon to North Beach parking lot (NP):
This is our most active site currently. There are six active nests, mostly within a mile of North Beach parking lot. There are no active broods at this site, though several nests are expected to hatch in the coming two weeks.
North Beach (NB):
There hasn't been any breeding activity between North Beach and South Beach parking lots since the start of the season.
South Beach (SB):
No breeding activity has been observed at this site this year.
Limantour (L):
One nest remains active at this site along with one brood consisting of a single chick. We expect another nest or two to pop up soon.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Matt Lau, the park's Snowy Plover Ecologist, via email.
CURRENT STATS:
- 24 total nests this season
- 9 active nest
- 9 hatched
- 6 failed nests
- 1 chicks on the beach
- 4 chicks confirmed fledged
A well-defined scrape with fresh snowy plover tracks around it. Both males and females will create scrapes during courtship. Eventually the female will decide where she will lay her eggs.
A nest with a single chick in the process of hatching! Once fully hatched, the chick will take a couple of hours to fully dry off and will already be mobile.
An Abbotts Lagoon Restoration Area (RA) nest, well camouflaged among coarse sand.
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