Western Snowy Plover Blog Posts

Limantour Beach is wide. Bookended by ocean on one side and grassy dunes on the other, its sandy expanse provides a habitat for many organisms that rely on the rich ecosystem between land and sea. The western snowy plover, a small brown and white shorebird, is one species that finds refuge in the sand. Over time, human activity and development have degraded many beaches like Limantour, and biologists have seen those impacts through the eyes of the snowy plovers.

On July 8th, National Park Service monitoring volunteer Wanda Bonneville started her first breeding western snowy plover survey on Drakes Spit. She didn't expect to find any signs of nesting, or even any adult snowy plovers. Neither did park snowy plover biologists. Researchers haven’t seen any nesting activity on Drakes Spit since the late 1980s. Well, not only did Bonneville find a snowy plover nest, she found one that was in the midst of hatching!

The western snowy plover breeding season in Point Reyes National Seashore ended on September 11th, when the last chicks of the season officially fledged. For the monitoring team and plovers alike, this season was a bumpy ride.

Things are continuing to look up for western snowy plovers at Point Reyes National Seashore this 2023 breeding season. It has been filled with an abundance of early nesting activity and new developments from a long reigning royal pair. As of mid-June, biologists have located 30 nests around Abbotts Lagoon, Point Reyes Beach, Kehoe Beach, and Limantour Beach.

Ocean Beach is exactly what I thought an urban California beach in the summer would look like. There were lots of surfers and families and dogs just hanging out enjoying the weather. I was there with Wildlife Biologist Rachel Townsend and Wildlife Intern Ana Arce to look for a small bird, the western snowy plover.

The western snowy plover breeding season is wrapping up in Point Reyes National Seashore, and it's ending on a high note. National Park Service and Point Blue Conservation Science biologists confirmed 28 fledglings (i.e., plover chicks that survived to at least 28 days), out of 45 chicks that hatched from park nests, a 62.2% fledge rate. This is the highest recorded fledge rate since 2012 and the highest total number of fledged chicks since 1997!

We’re now more than halfway through the western snowy plover nesting season at Point Reyes National Seashore, which runs from March until early- to mid-September. National Park Service and Point Blue Conservation Science biologists have found 29 total nests as of June 30th. To better protect them, this year we began deploying mini-exclosures. These are 25% the size of the large, circular exclosures that we've used in the past. So far, this new design has been effective.

The western snowy plover breeding season in Point Reyes National Seashore is nearing its end. As of July 31st, biologists have observed 32 total nests throughout the park. How do 32 nests stack up to previous nest counts for these federally threatened shorebirds? Okay, but not great. Thirty-two is above average since 1996 (~28 nests), but also the lowest number seen since 2013. At the same time, nest success and chick survival are on track to improve over last years numbers.

When common ravens devour western snowy plover eggs, they leave behind empty nest cups with tracks as evidence of the depredation event. Plover nests surrounded by raven tracks have become a worryingly familiar sight for biologists at Point Reyes. So this past winter, they decided to take a closer look at their past plover monitoring data. With new analyses, they were able to better understand the problem, and also the effectiveness of continuing the use of nest exclosures.

Although breeding western snowy plovers get most of the attention at Point Reyes National Seashore, the breeding season isn’t the only time to see plovers in the park. In fact, many more of these federally threatened shorebirds may be seen snatching invertebrates off of the park’s beaches in the winter. This winter, there were more than ever.