Ecosystem Targets and Supporting Indicators
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Piping plovers (Charadrius melodus) are small shorebirds approximately seven inches long with sand-colored plumage on their backs and crown and white underparts. They nest on beaches, often with least terns. Plovers winter along Atlantic and Gulf coasts from North Carolina to the Yucatan Peninsula. Their nesting and reproduction are threatened by human disturbance, shoreline development, storm tides, and predators. The piping plover is listed as a federally threatened species, as a state threatened species in Connecticut, and as state endangered in New York.
The abundance of piping plovers indicates whether there is sufficient protected beach habitat for coastal birds and sufficient food supply of marine worms (polychaetes) and other small marine invertebrates for the plovers and their chicks to eat on beaches, mudflats, and in the tidal wrack.
Since protection and monitoring efforts began in 1984 nesting success has improved resulting in more returning adults. State wildlife officials credit intensive on-site management, including symbolic fencing to prevent human disturbance to breeding areas, the construction of predator exclosures around nests to protect eggs, and dedicated monitoring of breeding pairs. Also more regulation of activities that impact beach habitats, public education campaigns, and the public’s cooperation has helped protect plover populations since predation and human disturbance remain threats to the breeding success at many of the locations across the Sound.
Shorebird managers and cooperators across the Atlantic Coast are working to reach goals set by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in the Piping Plover Atlantic Coast Population Recovery Plan. One objective of the Atlantic Coast recovery plan for piping plovers is to increase and maintain for five years a total of 2,000 breeding pairs of piping plovers distributed among four recovery units: Atlantic Canada, New England, New York-New Jersey, and Southern (DE-MD-VA-NC).
The Long Island Sound is part of the New York-New Jersey recovery unit, a region with an objective to increase and maintain a population of 575 breeding pairs for five years. Per the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s most recent 5-Year Review published in 2024, the New York-New Jersey recovery unit reached its goal in 2007, and again in 2021-2024. Currently North Shore piping plover populations have rebounded from their declines, which started in 2009, to reach a record high (106 breeding pairs) in 2016. Although there has been a slight decrease since 2016, the number of breeding pairs in recent years is consistent with the historical average. Connecticut shows a gradual increase in breeding pairs, and 2024 marks the 11th consecutive year of 50 or more breeding pairs in the state.
In addition to the noted breeding pairs, sustainable productivity rates of those pairs are essential to the success of the species. A productivity rate of 1.2 chicks produced per pair indicates a stable piping plover population in New England states. Since Connecticut’s formal monitoring began in 1986, the state only observed three years where piping plover productivity dipped below that 1.2 threshold. Much of this success is due to annual dedicated beach management and monitoring of breeding pairs. However, predation and human disturbance remains a risk to the breeding success at many of the locations across the Sound. In Connecticut, a State law (Public Act 23-155), “An Act Authorizing the Establishment of a Seabird and Shorebird Protection Program” passed in 2023 provides extra protection from human disturbance threats to vulnerable beach-nesting species, including Piping Plovers.
Read more about the Piping Plover on CT DEEP and USFWS.
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