Tag: Good Harbor Beach

HAPPY JULY FOURTH PIPING PLOVER UPDATE – MOM RETURNS!

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

Just a very brief update from my morning 5-7am shift- I was happy to see Mom has returned to looking after the chicks. It’s really a relief because the beach was so crowded today with beach goers, beginning very early this morning. The chicks (all three!) spent most of the day at the creek with volunteer monitors keeping a watchful eye on the babes throughout the day.

Mom keeping watch while occasionally pausing to forage and to preen.

Thirty-three-day old Piping Plover chick.

Dad on alert for crows and the Bachelor.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY PIPING PLOVER UPDATE – MOM RETURNS!

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

Just a very brief update from my morning 5-7am shift- I was happy to see Mom has returned to looking after the chicks. It’s really a relief because the beach was so crowded today with beach goers, beginning very early this morning. The chicks (all three!) spent the day at the creek with volunteer monitors keeping a watchful eye on the babes throughout the day.

Mom keeping watch while occasionally pausing to forage and to preen.

Thirty-three-day old Piping Plover chick.

Dad on alert for crows and the Bachelor.

HAPPY SUMMER, HAPPY FOURTH BROUGHT TO YOU BY A GLORIOUS GOOD HARBOR BEACH DAY!

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

So many happy faces today enjoying a day of fun in the sun. Happy Fourth!

A veritable sea of umbrellas.

Click panoramas twice to view larger

 

HAPPY THIRTY-TWO-DAYS OLD LITTLE CHICKS (ALL THREE)!

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

Almost entirely fledged, our Good Harbor Beach chicks are taking short flights around the creek and sandy beach. USFWS considers Piping Plovers fledged at 35 days, which will bring us to Saturday.

Nearly as large as the adults, the chicks still take direction and heed the parent’s warning piping calls alerting them to approaching danger. Every morning I typically find both adults protecting and monitoring the chicks, but this morning, only Papa was seen and that has been the case reported all day by fellow volunteers. Female Piping Plover parents often depart earlier than their male counterparts and that was the case with our family with the one surviving chick in 2017.

*Edited -found Mama this morning (a day after she disappeared), supervising all three chicks. Both parents still present and still on duty. Happy Fourth everyone!

What will happen at thirty-five-days? Will the chicks suddenly begin migrating southward? I don’t think it will be as precise as all that. The family maintains a loose association for an undetermined amount of time. Another PiPl family that I am documenting at a different location, where the chicks are four days older, is still hanging out together and the four siblings often nap together, within close proximity to Mom and Dad.

Under Dave Rimmer’s advice, the City has agreed to keep the roped off area in place until after the busy Fourth of July weekend (thank you!). By keeping the area within the rope protected, we are continuing to provide a safe harbor and good foraging habitat for the fledging birds, which will surely be needed this weekend.

Thank you to everyone who is watching out for our sweet little PiPl family ❤

 

PiPl sandwich

Going, going, gone!

Thirty-two-day Old Piping Plover Chicks

Papa supervising this morning

A GLISTENING SEA OF…

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

Garbage.

Crows and gulls finding a feast of garbage left behind by yesterday’s beach goers. Why is it so difficult for folks to clean up after themselves?

HAPPINESS IS KNOWING ALL YOUR BABIES ARE SAFE AND TUCKED IN FOR THE NIGHT

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

Our chicks are 26 days old today. We’ve nearly made it to the four-week-old milestone!

Doesn’t Papa look content? 🙂

Although state guidelines say piping Plover chicks have fledged by 25 days, that simply is not the case with our chicks. They cannot fly more than a few feet and are still swimming across the creek to the other side (about ten feet wide at mid-tide). If they could fly across, they would.

Every morning I find the chicks thermoregulating under Mom or Dad. Throughout the day, the parents guide the chicks up and down the beach to the most safe locations for foraging. And in the evening, they return to the protected area to snuggle under Mom or Dad, spending the night as a family unit.

The Federal guidelines are much more accurate when comparing my own observations and documentation. USFWS mandates protection up to 35 days. We PiPl monitors are going with protecting our family to 35 days, at five weeks old.

Thank you to all our wonderful Piping Plover volunteer monitors. Without a doubt, our chicks would not have made it this far if not for your time, patience, and dedication.

THE JOHNSON FAMILY OF YOUNG CONSERVATIONISTS!

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

Thank you to the Johnson Family of Wakefield and Connecticut for their interest in learning about the Piping Plovers and for giving them the space they needed when trying to get to the creek.

Volunteer monitor Laurie Sawin spent time with the family on Wednesday, sharing her binoculars and teaching the young conservation-minded kids all about Piping Plovers and their habitat. The kids were so interested and considerate of the birds, it was a joy to meet them!

People love the portable new signs, both beach goers and the volunteer monitors. The signs provide an opportunity for beach guests to ask questions and learn about the PiPls, and they also provide a reference for the monitors. Many thanks to volunteer monitor Heather Hall for sharing a photo online of the signs used at PiPl protected areas in Ontario.

Our PiPl family are finding lots of fat sea worms at the creek.

HAPPY THREE-WEEK-OLD BIRTHDAY TO OUR PIPING PLOVER CHICKS, ALL THREE!

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

On Saturday our Good Harbor Beach PiPl chicks turned three weeks old. They remind me so much of toddlers, with their indefatigable spirits, high energy and great appetites, adventuring, tumbling and bumping themselves throughout the day, flopping their tired selves down and wanting to be cuddled and protected, and then picking themselves up to start all over again.

Our chicks are spreading their wings! Their flight feathers have not yet grown in nonetheless, it doesn’t stop them from testing their wings. They stretch wide and take little leaps in the air, often ending with a face plant.

And sometimes, lift-off!

The chicks spend a good part of the day at the creek. On Saturday they crossed the creek and much to PiPl monitor Laurie Sawin’s dismay it appeared as though they were trapped on the other side and might have been swallowed up by the incoming tide. Instead, all three chicks swam across the creek to the safety of the shore.

We are stymied by the decision to shrink the Piping Plover’s protected area and are working toward re-establishing the size of their designated area. It’s really much too soon to be shrinking the roped off area and to have raked over the mini mounds of sand they sleep on every night. The chicks are all over the beach at all times of day and the protected area not only provides safety from people and pets, the un-raked areas provide a feast of good eating.

It clearly takes a village to raise a family of chicks at a popular city beach and we have a corps of wonderfully dedicated volunteers. We could really use help over these final ten days before the chicks are fully fledged. The weather has warmed and the beach has become much busier. Please contact Alicia Pensarosa if you would like to help. You can also directly sign up here. Thank you so much, and even more importantly, the PiPls thank you, too ❤

Tiny mollusks for breakfast

NEW PIPING PLOVER SIGNS

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

We have new Piping Plover portable signs to help the monitors. The signs can be picked up and moved anywhere there are chicks and foot traffic. We got the idea for the coroplast signs from ones used in Ontario.

THANKS SO MUCH TO SEAN AND SAMANTHA AT SEASIDE GRAPHICS FOR PUTTING A RUSH ON THE SIGNS! SEASIDE GRAPHICS IS SIMPLY THE BEST AROUND!

Like shooting fish in a barrel

Posted on by Catherine

opportunity_20190620_©c ryan

amateur video from the pedestrian bridge: Look down! Snowy egret moved into place for maximum minnow opportunity. My husband thought it averaged spearing about one every 15 seconds. Anyone know what the minnows are there?

 

HAPPY SUMMER SOLSTICE BROUGHT TO YOU BY GOOD HARBOR BEACH

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

The longest day of the year for the northern hemisphere is officially here today at 11:54am Eastern. In Gloucester the sun is up for 15 hours and 18 minutes, rising at 5:05am and setting at 8:23pm.

More days like this please!

CLOVER PLOVERS – Just hatched Killdeer Chicks!

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

The Good Harbor Beach Killdeers first laid eggs in the parking lot, very close to where the Piping Plovers also had a nest scrape. After only several days, the eggs disappeared but the pair soon re-nested along the parking lot edge.

Just as do PiPl chicks, Killdeer chicks are able to feed themselves shortly after hatching; they seem to come out running and only need their feathers to dry before feeding. The chicks learn the parent’s voice commands very early on in their development and at only a few days old, the brood will immediately freeze as soon as the adults give out a warning. The name Killdeer comes from the easily recognized and oft heard call of the adults, a loud, shrill ‘kill-dee, kill-dee.’

GONE FISHIN’ -THE ONE THAT DIDN’T GET AWAY

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

Snowy Egret in the creek this morning, and Coyote, too.

Snowy Egrets are the most animated of hunting herons and this one did not disappoint, tossing his minnows in the air, flapping his wings while leaping from rock to rock, stirring the sand with his bright cadmium yellow feet, dip diving, and shimmy shaking his feathers.

Our Good Harbor Beach PiPl Family is thriving. Here’s another morsel that didn’t get away. More on the PiPls on Friday 🙂

Seventeen-day old Piping Plover Chicks

 

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY – BROUGHT TO YOU BY PIPING PLOVER DADS!

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

Fifteen-day-old Piping Plover chicks

Last year I posted a similarly titled post, Happy Father’s Day! Brought to You By Papa Plover,with a photo of Papa PiPl snuggling our one remaining chick, Pip.

This year we have a sweet photo from yesterday of our Papa PiPl snuggling all three chicks, not just one chick as was the case last year on Father’s Day. I wrote, “Whenever folks stop by to ask questions at the nesting area and they see the little chicks snuggling under the adult PiPl, they almost automatically assume it is the Mama Plover. Half the time it is the female, and the other half, the male. Mom and Dad share equally in caring for the chicks, generally in twenty minute to half hour intervals. They are always within ear shot and while one is minding the chicks, the other is either feeding itself, grooming, or patrolling for predators. Last year, as is often the case, the Mama Plover departed Good Harbor Beach several weeks before the chick fledged, leaving Little Chick entirely under Papa’s care.”

But there is more to the story about what makes Piping Plover males Super Dads. Papa is not only an excellent Dad in that he is a fifty/fifty caretaker of the chicks, but male Plovers are also fierce defenders of their family. Our Papa is no exception. He is always on high alert, especially when it comes to the Bachelor and his antics. Between gulls, crows, other avian predators, human caused disturbances, and even danger from one of their own kind, it’s not easy being a Plover Dad.

Papa Plover warming the three chicks. They were fifteen days old on Saturday morning.

The Bachelor tries to camp out in the protected area. Papa is having none of it and leaps up to give chase to the Bachelor.

Papa and the Bachelor smack down over command of the protected area.

Male Piping Plovers fight, and even bite, competing males for mates and for nesting territory.

 

OUR GOOD HARBOR BEACH PIPING PLOVER CHICKS ARE TWO WEEKS OLD TODAY!

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

Two weeks ago today, four tiny Piping Plover chicks hatched at Good Harbor Beach. Nesting got off to a rocky start, with the mated pair first attempting to nest at the beach, then at the parking lot, but then thankfully, returning to their original nest site.

The relative peace on the beach, excellent parenting by Mama and Papa PiPl, cooler than average temperatures, vigilant monitoring by a corps of dedicated volunteers, outpouring of consideration by beach goers, as well as support from the DPW, City administration, and City Councilors has allowed the chicks to attain the two-week-old stage of maturity. With each passing day, we can see the chicks are gaining in strength and fortitude and listening more attentively to their parent’s voice commands. Adhering to Mama and Papa’s piping calls is an important milestone in their development. The parents continuously pipe commands and directions, warning of danger and directing the chicks to come to a stand still. The tiny shorebird’s best defense is its ability to blend with its surroundings when motionless.

The chicks spent the early morning warming up and foraging at the protected area. Afternoon found them camped out at the creek.

Snapshots from the morning

 

There was a group of young people stationed near the PiPl protected area enjoying the beach on this fine sunny afternoon. All was good though as the chicks were perfectly safe, foraging far down the creek. With gratitude and thanks to everyone who is helping to keep our PiPl family safe.

Snapshots from the afternoon