Overview
Hello Plover lovers! We have about two and a half weeks left of the breeding season in Point Reyes. We currently still have several chicks on the beach, all projected to fledge in the next two weeks. One brood on Limantour will not fledge until September 11, which is unusually late in the season.
Adult and juvenile birds are now in "winter mode", and coalescing into flocks throughout the park, mostly on Limantour and Kehoe Beach. Within these flocks, we have observed several banded birds return that hatched in Point Reyes, but have decided to nest elsewhere. For example, we had confirmation from biologists in Humboldt County that one of our banded one-year old plovers migrated to South Spit (BLM) in Humboldt Bay to breed this past season.
Here are updates organized by beach sites:
Kehoe (K)
There is a single nest active on this site that may have been abandoned. We are closely monitoring this nest to see if the adults are still associating with it, though it seems unlikely. Both adults have been observed loafing with the winter flock. Two broods are still active, one of which will fledge at the end of next week; the other will fledge in two weeks.
Abbotts Lagoon Restoration Area (RA)
No plovers have been observed in this large native dune habitat in months, likely due to heavy nest loss earlier in the season and in past seasons. With proper predator management, we hope that plovers will return to this site to breed next season.
Abbotts Lagoon to North Beach parking lot (NP)
No nests remain on this site, though there is a brood with two chicks still present approximately one mile north of North Beach parking lot. These are projected to fledge early next week!
North Beach (NB)
We have not observed any nesting activity or adult birds on this site in the past few weeks, but we will continue to survey for winter flocks.
Limantour (L)
There is a single brood that will fledge in mid-September. This site hosts a fairly large winter flock numbering around fifty to sixty plovers; it will likely grow in size as the fall season progresses into winter.
South Beach (SB)
No breeding activity or adult birds have been observed on this site in the past few weeks.
If you have any questions, please feel free to let Matt Lau, the park's Snowy Plover Ecologist, know via email. Thank you so much, again, for all your help!
Current Stats
- 35 nests so far this season
- 1 active nest
- 13 hatched
- 21 failed nests
- 7 chicks on the beach
- 12–14 chicks fledged
A two-month old fledgling, banded av:gr, which hatched from North Beach on June 4. We observed this juvenile with the winter flock on Limantour Beach.
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