Good Morning Piping Plover Ambassadors,

Dad and Marshmallow live another day in their struggle for survival! This morning’s shift was happily uneventful. I found Dad and the Little One within the protected area at the main beach and after a long stretch of thermoregulating and before moving onto the Creek, Marshmallow did his beautiful crazy pre-flight flutter-hop dance. He’ll be flying brief distances at low altitude well before the upcoming week is out.

Lift-off! Piping Plover chick 20 days old

Yesterday was a tough one. As the day marched on, the tide rose higher and higher, and beach visitors kept pouring in. The duo never returned to home base at the main beach but instead spent the day-into-evening on a teeny, tiny bit of dry sand at nearly the furthest most point at the Creek, before the bend.

Piping Plover Chick 20 days old

I stopped by late in the afternoon to see how Jonathan and Sally were faring. They had their eyes keenly peeled on Dad, who was perched on a bare little mound of sand. Dad was keeping his eyes peeled on potential threats. Sally and Jonathan kindly shared their binoculars with all who were interested in learning more about the Plovers, young and old alike.

It was surprising to see the parking lot still completely full at 5:30 and folks still pouring in. Disputes over parking erupted as people tried to wait for others to leave. People were entering in droves across the footbridge as well. All this happening during the early evening, when in a  typical year, people are leaving the beach at about this time of day.

A question arose yesterday about why we are cleaning the beach. The DPW and all the beach maintenance guys do a TREMENDOUS JOB. We are only cleaning near and around the PiPl area so that the beach rake does not have too come close to the roped off area.

Today the weather is going to be beautiful, which means a super crowded beach. Please call,  text, or email if you need anything. Thank you all for your valiant efforts on behalf of our GHB PiPls!

xxKim

Jonathan and Sally’s daughter Libby and friend, Jonathan’s Photo