While we have been busy with our rebuild this summer at the east end of our beach, down at the most westerly end, so was Mother Nature! The protected, and extremely beautiful Plover, for the first time in a very long time, chose our beach to nest and raise 3 chicks, which we are delighted to announce have survived and fledged the nest last month!

When first discovered in late June, we called our contacts at Bird Studies Canada who sent out Piping Plover Monitor Avery Nagy-MacArthur.  On July 2 we received this note via email from Avery:
“I was down today to check on the chicks, we estimated that they are roughly 20 days old today, which is an important milestone to record for our records going to the Canadian Wildlife Service. The chicks won’t actually be able to fly until they are around 28 days old; myself or my co-worker, David, will check on them next Monday the 9th to confirm that they are fledged.
We are very glad that all 3 chicks have so far survived!
Thanks for your help and cooperation.”

On July 31st, a month later following a visit by the Monitors, they reported that all three chicks had survived and were doing well having joined  the adults – signs indicating our protected zone around the nest and chicks have been removed, and the beach is open in that area again.

We are extremely delighted that our beach has nurtured triplets, contributing positively to a species at risk with only 200 in Nova Scotia. You can learn more and get involved in the protection of these birds in conjunction with Kejimkujik National Park & National Historic Site of Canada – http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/ns/kejimkujik/activ/activ14.aspx 

Take a look at what they looked like at around 20 days old, the White Point Piping Plover chicks: (Photos by Joanne Veinotte)

This entry was posted on Friday, August 3rd, 2012 at 2:33 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.