When it comes to their continued survival in Maine, piping plovers have two things going for them. First, they have cute offspring; their chicks are often described as balls of fluff with legs. Waterfront landowners like to keep the birds around. Second, they have a handful of dedicated wildlife officials working for their survival.
Unfortunately, these two things are not enough. Plover numbers are the lowest they’ve been since the 1980s, warns Maine’s Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Department. The birds may disappear from Maine unless their beach-nesting habitat along southern Maine is protected. At last count, there were 19 nesting pairs left, according to Maine Audubon field biologists.
In 2002, there were three times as many, but the plovers have been hurt by a number of factors, including their need for very specific habitat. Unlike gulls, plovers are considered specialists and cannot easily adapt to changing environments, said Eric Hynes, a Maine Audubon staff naturalist. Plover populations are easily disrupted by change, and they tend to like expansive sandy beaches that are exceedingly rare in Maine, he said.
“This bird is always going to have a weak grasp” in Maine, Hynes said.
Massachusetts has some 500 pairs, but Hynes believes it’s important to maintain the few pairs that find their way up north. Without a diversified population in Maine and Atlantic Canada, one oil spill along Cape Cod could wipe out the birds along the eastern seaboard, he said.
Plovers’ natural enemies are numerous and include dogs, cats, gulls, crows, fox, skunk and mink. The birds also get scared off or separated from chicks by fireworks, automobiles, and even kites (the birds assume the kites are birds of prey). The nesting birds’ only defense is to draw predators away from their eggs on the beach; the chicks are flightless for about a month and must rely on camouflage.
Inland development is adding to the plovers’ problems. While coastland in southern Maine may be as developed as it’s going to get, new inland development is taking away traditional habitat of many predators, says Maine Audubon field biologist Angie Chessey. The predators migrate to the coastline grasslands, where plover eggs are easy prey.
“They’re all getting pushed,” she said.
There are a few simple things people can do to help. Most importantly, wildlife officials are pleading with dog owners to keep their dogs away from critical plover habitat from April 1 to Aug. 30, including at Wells Beach, Parson’s Beach, Goose Rocks Beach, Goose Fare Brook, Western Beach, Reid State Park and Scarborough Beach.
During a recent nest check-up at Higgins Beach in Scarborough, Chessey saw the evidence of what happens when dog owners ignore this advice. Three nests were wiped out.
“What we could find for evidence was a lot of dog tracks,” Chessey said. “Dogs have been a pretty big issue this year.”
Plovers consider all dogs to be predators, including leashed dogs and dogs that respond to voice commands. They will often dive-bomb leashed dogs to lead them away from nests, leaving the nests exposed to other predators and the birds critically stressed.
Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife biologist Judy Camuso says her dog loves to go to the beach.
“[But] she doesn’t go to the beach from April to October,” Camuso said.
Dog owners, like all other animal and human residents of the southern coast of Maine, are being squeezed by development. There is a dearth of places to let dogs run without leashes, so it’s natural to turn to these beaches. The situation soon may improve as pet advocates continue to establish leash-free parks along the coast. But Chessey urges dog owners to find alternatives for the sake of the birds.
“There are not many places to take your dog, but there’s no place else for these birds to go,” said Chessey.
Massachusetts has laws in place to close some beaches completely during plover mating season, but Maine wildlife officials don’t want to consider that step.
“We haven’t even talked about it,” said Camuso.
Wildlife officials have no magic bullet to stop plover decline other than education. State wildlife officials have stepped up patrols, field biologists are fencing off nesting areas, and private landowners keep state officials informed if they see the birds. Chessey and Kramer patrol 40 miles of coastline a week, looking for telltale balls of fluff with legs or a plover that has eight legs under it.
Chessey says it’s those moments of discovering nests that keep her going, and it’s the destruction of those nests that gets her down.
“It is kind of disheartening,” she said. “All we can do is try every year.”
If the plovers are going to stay in Maine, Chessey’s going to need some help from Maine’s beach-goers.