Piping Plovers need help to survive, and they’re getting it at Milford Point
Coastal rangers Matt Joyce, left, and Johann Heupel watch over nests and other activity on the Milford Point sandspit 7 days a week. Photo by Ken Elkins.
Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) |
Population Size and Range:
Wintering: Piping Plovers migrate south for the winter, typically to the coastal areas of the southeastern U.S., the Gulf of Mexico, the Bahamas, and the Caribbean. |
Piping Plover videos from Milford Point
The Piping Plover videos were taken by Gilles Carter, a Connecticut Audubon board member and professional videographer, using a powerful lens from a distance that’s safe for the birds.
Tips for keeping the shorebirds safe if you visit
Late summer and early fall are great times to go birding at the Milford Point Coastal Center. But because Milford Point is first and foremost a nature preserve, we ask that you enjoy the birds without disturbing them, especially on the sand spit.
Connecticut Audubon is working through the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds to make the public more aware of how vulnerable shorebirds are, and of the simple things visitors to the beach can do to help protect them.
To protect the nesting birds, please don’t enter the roped-off areas.
If you’re there to view shorebirds, we request that you try to visit the sandbar only when the tide is dropping after high tide.
Walk below the high tide line. It’s a great vantage for viewing shorebirds, and it also means you won’t disturb the Piping Plovers still on the upper portion of the spit
That should give you room to walk carefully, view the birds through binoculars and scopes, and photograph them without getting close enough to force them to move.
Even during those periods, please walk carefully. Don’t linger for too long. If you notice birds flying away as you approach, that’s a signal you’ve gotten too close.
If a Coastal Ranger or other Connecticut Audubon staff or volunteer asks you to move a bit farther from the birds, please heed the request.
The gates of the Milford Point Coastal Center are open from dawn to dusk. You can visit other parts of the Coastal Center at any time without disturbing the birds.
July 18, 2024 — It’s starting to look like another outstanding season for the Piping Plovers that nest at Connecticut Audubon’s Milford Point Coastal Center.
These tiny beach-nesting birds, listed as threatened in Connecticut and throughout their U.S. range, are generally scarce. The number of nests in the state over the past 13 years has fluctuated from 45 to a high of 79 last year. And those nests can be found only on about 17 beaches.
For a coastline that stretches for about 125 miles, 79 nests isn’t many. But as few as there are now, there would be far fewer Piping Plovers in Connecticut without the intensive, 7-day-a-week attention they get from a corps of staff and volunteers on the state’s beaches.
Two coastal rangers, Matt Joyce and Johann Heupel, provide that attention at the Milford Point Coastal Center. Their work is supported by the generosity of Connecticut Audubon’s members and donors.
The cost per bird
If you add up the costs of protecting Milford Point’s Piping Plovers, and divide it by the number of birds that fledge, the success of the last two years comes to about $1,300 per fledgling.
Piping Plover chicks are tiny and vulnerable to predators despite their effective camouflage. This bird hatched at Milford Point in 2024. Photo by Gilles Carter.
Is it worth it? Conservation biologists estimate that for the Piping Plover population to increase across their range, they would need to average 1.5 fledged birds per nest.
At Milford Point last year, the rate was 1.87. Approximately 20 percent of all the Piping Plovers that fledged in Connecticut in 2023 fledged at Milford Point.
This year, the rate is 1.85 and could reach above 2 fledglings per nest depending on how the rest of the month unfolds.
Johann Heupel, left, and Matt Joyce keep a close watch on Piping Plover nests, eggs, hatchling and adults. The summer of 2024 is shaping up to be a good season for the threatened plovers. Photo by Ken Elkins.
Matt and Johann patrol the Milford Point beach and sandspit seven days a week, from dawn to dusk, April through the end of summer. Their job is to find and help protect the nests, keep track of the eggs and hatchlings, and let visitors know how to view the birds without putting them in danger.
Laura Saucier, who oversees the coastal waterbird program for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, told a newspaper reporter last summer: “I think that the difference between Milford Point and some of our other sites is those rangers. The public knows that there’s some accountability.”
In 2023, more baby plovers fledged at Milford Point than in any year in about three decades, which is as far back as our records go. Sixteen nesting pairs laid 64 eggs; 30 chicks fledged.
This year, 13 pairs of Piping Plovers hatched babies at Milford Point. Twenty four of the 33 have fledged — an important accomplishment because once the birds can fly they are much less vulnerable to predators. Nine are still on the beach and, with luck, we expect them all to fledge by August 1.
But that’s only part of the story.
Protecting the nests
The plovers begin to nest in April, and the key to their survival, Matt said, is the speed with which the nests are protected with exclosures after the eggs are laid. The exclosures are wire cages that allow the birds to come and go while keeping foxes, crows, and other predators away.
Getting the exclosure in place on time sounds easier than it is. Piping Plovers’ plumage blends with the sand, shells, stones, and bits of dried seaweed. The nests are nothing more than dents in the sand the size of a clam shell. The eggs look like stones. The birds are easy enough to see when they scurry along, but not so easy when they stop, and really cryptic when they settle onto their nests to incubate eggs.
“Finding the nests quickly so that we can get them exclosed is what makes the difference both at Milford and across the state,” Matt said.
Piping Plovers lay four eggs over six days or so. But the birds are skittish, and there’s a risk that they’ll abandon the nest. So Matt and Johann, working with volunteers from the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, and staff from Audubon Connecticut and the CT DEEP, generally wait until all four eggs are in the nests before erecting exclosures. That leaves the first eggs vulnerable to predators.
This year crows and foxes often found them before they could be protected.
But the plovers’ urge to produce offspring is strong. When a nest is destroyed, the birds try again. Several pairs of Piping Plovers on the Milford Point sandspit had to nest three times this year before the eggs hatched and the young survived long enough to fledge. For others, it took two tries.
The everyday presence of the predators caused Matt, Johann and the others from the Audubon Alliance to break their usual routine and erect exclosures after three eggs were in the nest.
The new tactic worked. This is shaping up to be close to another record year for Piping Plovers at Milford Point. For that, Matt and Johann deserve thanks. And so do the Connecticut Audubon members who make funding this conservation work a priority.
Piping Plovers nest on only about 17 beaches in Connecticut. Almost 20% of all the nests are at Milford Point. Photo by Scott .Kruitbosch/RTPI
