Piping Plovers

 

A baby piping plover breaks through its shell on a protected beach in Brigantine. For a story on the threatened species in New Jersey, I accompanied biologists from the City University of New York on their daily trip to monitor nesting plovers. They are trying to figure out what eats baby plovers. Apparently, the answer is everything. Despite years of protections in New Jersey, plovers have not gained much ground. At the same time, they haven't lost much ground either, which I guess is good news. But there are still precious few nests across the state.

The speckled eggs of piping plovers blend in with the broken clamshells on the beach. They are easy to miss, which explains why beaches are cordoned off during nesting season.

Biologists from the City University of New York look for recently hatched baby plovers.

They captured several and attached GPS tags to help them identify the biggest predators of plover chicks. Besides feral and stray cats, piping plovers fall prey to gulls and foxes.

An adult piping plover scours the retreating tide in Stone Harbor for dinner.