Plover lovin': Things to know about P.E.I.'s endangered piping plover

This endangered species on P.E.I. is tough to spot and weighs only about as much as half a deck of cards — the piping plover.

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"I think they're amazing," said Julie-Lynn Zahavich, stewardship coordinator with the Island Nature Trust. She's worked with the tiny shore birds for the past seven years.

Zahavich shared some fascinating facts about piping plovers.

They are rare

Island Nature Trust has recorded only 61 individual piping plovers on P.E.I. this year. That's up from 54 counted last year, but still not what Island Nature Trust would like to see. They were listed in 1985 as endangered in Canada. 

The most plovers ever recorded on P.E.I. in 2001 was 112.

They are long-distance travellers

They return to P.E.I. every spring from journeys south — P.E.I.-banded plovers have been spotted in Florida, Cuba or the Bahamas in the winter.

They nest all along P.E.I.'s North Shore, from Alberton Harbour to East Point. Nests have also been found on Boughton Island and in Wood Islands on the southeast shore. 

This year for the the first time since 1984, a pair has also been nesting in on Glenwood Island near West Point on P.E.I.'s south shore.

Build it and she will come

Male plovers arrive back on P.E.I. first, in late March through June, and will make several nests for his female to choose from — Zahavich has seen them make more than 20!

"He uses his body and his legs to scrape out a little divot in the sand," said Zahavich. "The female will choose her favourite one." 

'Full clutch'

Typically plovers usually lay four eggs once a year. They lay one egg every two days, then sit on them to incubate for 28 days — a task the male and female share. 

If something happens to the first eggs, the pair will nest again, up to three times. 

Creating eggs, which each weigh about six grams, is tough work and leaves the female depleted, so it's important they be undisturbed so they can feed, Zahavich said. 

Camouflage eggs

Plovers lay nests on the open beach between sand dunes and the high tide line, Zahavich notes. 

"They nest in cobble-y areas. So they like sand but they also like some bits of shell and rock because they like for their eggs to blend in with their habitat." 

Even experts like Zahavich sometimes have a tough time finding their nests, she said. 

The kids grow up so fast

A few hours after they are hatched, they are "up and feeding themselves," Zahavich said, unlike many other chicks who are fed by their parents for the first few days.

Plovers eat marine worms and beach insects. 

"They care fiercely about their chicks and their nests and they're so vulnerable," said Zahavich.

Daddy Day care 

As soon as the chicks are hatched and brooded over for a few days, mama plover is out of there! She's hungry, said Zahavich.

The male plover stays with the hatchlings for the first three weeks or so, until they're ready to fly on their own. 

"Often you'll see groups of juveniles with an adult, so it's probably a male," Zahavich said.

High fidelity 

The birds do manage to pair up again and again with the same partners, though, Zahavich said, and also usually return to the same site.

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Peep-lo

The plovers call "sounds kind of like a flute, so I guess that's why they're called piping plovers," said Zahavich. It sounds like of like "peep-lo," she said. 

They need help

Island Nature Trust puts up large signs on Island beaches when and where plovers are nesting and feeding, but people don't always respect them, Zahavich said. 

"We do find a lot of disturbance, signs of disturbance, around our nesting areas. Vehicle tracks, dog tracks and human footprints," she said with a hint of frustration. The Nature Trust tries to educate people about the importance of protecting the helpless little birds. 

Their main predators are crows and foxes, and nests sometimes get washed away in storms. If there's too much activity around nests, adult plovers may abandon them, Zahavich said. Sometimes roaming dogs destroy the nests, too. 

"To think about losing them, I think that would be quite sad," she said. 

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