#ShareTheShore with Piping Plovers
BY STEVE BIASETTI, GROUP FOR THE EAST END DIRECTOR OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
Piping plover, photo by Jim Colligan
They definitely don’t prance. And you couldn’t say they lope. Nor do they strut, stride or swagger. No, piping plovers don’t do any of those things. In fact, their short legs and small plump bodies aren’t capable of such movements. But they sure can scamper (and scurry, for that matter). These are the words that come to mind when watching a piping plover scoot along the beach.
Of course, it is difficult to describe the movements of something you cannot see. Sure, a piping plover’s legs and basal half of its bill are orange; you would think that those details might catch your eye. But from anywhere farther than a few feet away, such features on a seven-inch-long shorebird are hardly noticeable. Instead, the bird’s pale-gray back blends perfectly into its sandy surroundings, so that an adult sitting still on a nest above the high-tide line or at the edge of a dune is virtually invisible…
Which partially explains why piping plovers are federally threatened along the entire Atlantic Coast and are designated an endangered species in New York State. A small, motionless, sand-colored bird that nests where a significant percentage of the U.S. population swims, surfs, sunbathes, fishes, and drives will inevitably struggle to survive. With the aid of intensive federal and state endangered species programs, though, piping plovers have a fighting chance.
Group For The East End has been proud to play a part in the species’ protection, monitoring plovers in Southold Town since 2012. Among our tasks each year, we: set up string-fencing on beaches with a suitable nesting habitat wherever possible; post signage informing the community about piping plovers and ways to protect them; regularly visit likely sites in search of nests; monitor the nests we find; and erect protective exclosures around nests when necessary.
So, from April through August, tread carefully on the beach. The responsibility is ours to ensure that future generations of Long Islanders may hear the clear “peep-lo” of the piping plover.