Good Morning PiPl Friends,

I hope you are managing to stay cool wherever you live. Looking at the glass half full, several plusses to this very heated summer are that the butterflies  of summer thrive in the warmth (as long as there are flowers to nectar from), and we are seeing many shorebird chicks have already fledged and departed their ‘home bases.’ The fledglings may either be getting an early start migrating or are staging at locations nearby. The maiden voyage of the fledglings is the most dangerous and we wish them all safe travels.

Earlier in the season, I filmed a fascinating sequence. As I was coming onto the beach, from some distance, I could see Super Mom had something much larger than usual in her beak. I was so far away I couldn’t tell what it was but she was shaking it like mad. I began filming and soon realized it was an eggshell. She was trying with all her mini might to break the shell into smaller bits. She managed to somewhat, then put the eggshell in her mouth and flew off with it, discarding the eggshell some distance away at the flats.

We know shorebirds remove the eggshells from the nest, but I had never seen a Plover try to smash it up. Several weeks later, I knew what to look for and saw a second Plover at another location do the same thing. Eggshells left in the nest signal to crows and gulls a hatchling meal and Plovers are very diligent about removing the shells, often within seconds of a chick hatching.

Our Super Mom is such a great Mom. All Plover families are not equal in parenting skills. Some pairs are just plain new at the job, some never really develop good communication with their chicks, and others appear to let their chicks wander too far away. But not our Super Mom and Super Dad; this is their ninth year nesting at GHB and they are truly exceptional parents.

Happy Summer!

xxKim