About This BlogDuring the western snowy plover breeding season, park docents help monitor and protect nesting sites and help create awareness and educate visitors about this threatened species and its life cycle. Visitors have expressed interest in the plovers and are pleased to have staff and docents in the field answering all types of naturalist questions. Through the summer, park staff create updates to let staff, volunteers, and visitors know the latest on what is happening out at the nesting sites. Click on one of the links below to find out how the Snowy Plovers at Point Reyes were doing at the time. To learn more about becoming a Snowy Plover Docent, please visit our Volunteer page. Snowy Plover Update - July 16, 2025
July 16, 2025
So far this week we have found no new nests in the seashore, but there is still time. We continue to see multiple birds paired up and fresh scrapes but have been unable to locate any eggs on the ground yet. By the end of July, we are projecting all our active nests on the Great Beach to have hatched with our lone Limantour nest not hatching until the first week of August. And we have begun to see winter flocks forming at Kehoe, Abbotts Lagoon, and Limantour beaches. Snowy Plover Update - July 10, 2025
July 10, 2025
As our season continues, we are starting to see some snowy plovers winding down their breeding efforts, but most definitely not all birds are trending that way. We are still seeing multiple pairs looking like they will have their last eggs of the season on the ground any day now. And we have an update on the two chicks that were hatched and raised at the International Bird Rescue. Snowy Plover Update - July 3, 2025
July 03, 2025
It’s looking like our birds are starting to make their final nesting attempts of the season! On Monday we found three new nests, all on the stretch of beach between Abbotts Lagoon and the North Beach Parking lot. We have also seen many birds without active nests paired up along this stretch of beach, so we hope to find them with eggs soon. Snowy Plover Update - June 27, 2025
June 27, 2025
On Monday, June 23, we were able to confirm that all five snowy plover chicks that hatched out at Limantour Beach on May 26 had fledged! Three new nests were found in the seashore this week. Along with these three nests, we expect to find more next week, observing at least four other pairs prospecting sites for what could be their last attempt of the season. Snowy Plover Update - June 20, 2025
June 20, 2025
Four new snowy plover nests were found over the course of this past week, all along the stretch of beach between Abbotts Lagoon and the North Beach parking lot. One of the four was found Saturday afternoon during a training for volunteer monitors who will be helping our team survey sites for the rest of the season. Another exciting part of our week was getting to go out and band a brood this past Monday with former NPS Biologist Matt Lau. Snowy Plover Update - June 12, 2025
June 12, 2025
While no new nests were found in the seashore this week, we are finally starting to get a nice wave of hatching nests! Of our currently eight active nests, we're projecting six of them to be hatched out by next Wednesday! Snowy Plover Update - June 5, 2025
June 05, 2025
Since last week, it seems our birds are continuing to chug along as well as they can. At the beginning of the week, we were still seeing all five of our chicks on Limantour, but as of our last survey only three were spotted out on the beach. Some of the nests we found last week have since been depredated (mostly by ravens), but we did we did find three more nests this week. Snowy Plover Update - May 29, 2025
May 29, 2025
Over the last week our second round of nesting has really gone into full swing—four new nests were found between North Beach and Abbotts Lagoon (bringing our total to 18 for the year in this area) and another at Kehoe Beach (the eighth for this site). After losing nests earlier this month, it's common to see the birds rebound like this. Some have repaired with the same mate they started the season with, while others are trying things out with a new partner. Snowy Plover Update - May 22, 2025
May 22, 2025
The snowy plover nesting season in Point Reyes has been a whirlwind! The first nest of the season popped up on March 28 and we started detecting nesting at all the usual sites soon after. As of Thursday May 22, biologists have found 32 total nests, although 12 of the nests were lost during windy days in early May. Our initial estimates of the breeding adult population appear to be on par with the 2024 breeding season with a minimum of 40 individuals. |
Last updated: May 30, 2025