Overview
Hello Plover Lovers! We had a very exciting week! The first two chicks of the season have fledged from the North Beach site! We still have five chicks running around on the beach and the next three chicks will fledge early next week (cross your fingers!). It is currently peak breeding season and there are currently six active nests, with one projected to hatch this weekend.
More excitingly, we were surprised with an observation of a male with unknown chicks that hatched from an unknown nest on South Beach! This is the first evidence of snowy plovers breeding south of South Beach parking lot since 1989. Consequently, we will be increasing monitoring efforts on this site for the rest of the season.
Here are updates organized by beach sites:
Kehoe (K)
The two nests that have been found at the north end of Kehoe Beach are still active and both in nest exclosures. These are associated with the only two pairs of plovers on this site.
Abbotts Lagoon Restoration Area (RA)
There are no known active nests in this large native dune area at this time. Plovers have not been observed in this large native dune habitat for a few weeks now, likely due to the constant presence of common ravens.
Abbotts Lagoon to North Beach parking lot (NP)
There are two active nests on this long stretch of beach. The nest adjacent to North Beach parking lot is projected to hatch this weekend; please keep an eye out for this brood and watch them from afar! The second nest is approximately a mile north of the parking lot. There is also a three-chick brood hanging out about a quarter mile north of the parking lot; these are estimated to fledge early next week.
North Beach (NB)
There is a single nest about halfway between North Beach and South Beach parking lot, but it won't hatch for another few weeks. There will likely be more nesting activity in this area, now that females and males are freed from the recently hatched nests and fledged chicks.
Limantour (L)
Plover activity on Limantour Beach remains low compared to the past few years. There are currently two active nests, down on Limantour Spit. There is currently no breeding activity between the parking lots.
South Beach (SB)
There is a surprise brood of chicks about a week old on this site, which hatched from a previously unknown nest.
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
- 29 nests so far this season
- 6 active nests
- 4 hatched
- 19 failed nests
- 5 chicks on the beach
- 2 chicks fledged
Two newly hatched chicks camouflaged amongst native Ambrosia vegetation.
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