Snowy Plover nesting and roosting update

Half Moon Bay Review, 4/30/15. "Snowy Plovers bypass local beaches by Ester Hahn."

Flyby Pacifica, return to the same nest

New generation Snowy Plovers 

"Snowy plovers are often sighted along local beaches during the winter months, resting up for the nesting months ahead. But the last time the birds appear to have nested in Half Moon Bay was in 2009, according to Supervising State Park Ranger Nelle Lyons. ....  She is aware, though, that snowy plovers have managed to nest in the past, most recently in Pescadero in 2012.

....  Various factors, from the increasingly narrow beaches to the resident predators like the peregrine falcons and the nonnative red foxes, have played significant roles in discouraging snowy plovers from nesting in the area, Lyons explained. “The wider the beaches, the more (available) habitat and the more likely (that the snowy plovers will) nest,” Lyons said. “In Monterey, because (snowy plovers) have large nesting areas, they’re able to do more predator management.”

.... For now, the local snowy plover population is actually on the rise. A winter survey, conducted on Jan. 20, reported the sighting of 152 snowy plovers over six beaches in San Mateo County, the highest number since 2004. Last year, there were only 99 birds sighted."   Read article.

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References, Snowy Plover:  Cornell Lab of Ornithology/Snowy Plover,"A small plover of beaches and barren ground, the Snowy Plover can be found across North and South America, Eurasia, and Africa. In North America it is restricted to the Gulf and Pacific coasts of the United States, and scattered inland localities from Saskatchewan to California and Texas."  Western Snowy Plover:  US Fish & Wildlife Service,  WSP Organization/About. 

Note Western Snowy Plover photographs are from Oregon Coast Aquarium, Newport," Oregon Coast exhibit, "...  a wild species that lives in on the sandy shores of Oregon. ..." 

Posted by Kathy Meeh