Death of Piping Plover Prompts Investigation

Population already facing worst nesting season in nearly 20 years

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine, July 29, 2008—With an especially tough nesting season putting the population at a critically low point, Maine’s piping plovers have faced another setback. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and Maine Warden Service are investigating the death of a piping plover found at Goose Rocks Beach last week. With a federally threatened status, the bird is protected by the Endangered Species Act.

Maine Audubon biologists found the dead piping plover last Friday afternoon while making their rounds for the Maine Piping Plover and Least Tern Recovery Project. The bird was a fledgling, hatched this season and just able to fly. Seven pairs of adult birds nested at Goose Rocks Beach this season, with 13 chicks surviving there to become fledglings.

Maine Audubon turned the bird’s body over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for a necropsy to determine the bird’s cause of death and investigate whether there was a violation of the Endangered Species Act, according to USFWS special agent Eric Holmes. Taken very seriously, violations can come with heavy penalties.

If anyone has information about the death, please call Fish and Wildlife Service agents at (207) 469-6842 or the Maine Warden Service at 1-800-ALERT US (253-7887).

Editors and reporters: please e-mail acolvin@maineaudubon.org if you would like a picture of the bird.

With the number of piping plovers nesting on Maine beaches down sharply—from 35 pairs last year to 19 this year—the birds are having the worst season in nearly 20 years.

“Maine’s piping plover population is in a critical state right now, so every death is significant and important to look into,” said Jody Jones, Maine Audubon ecologist. “Any information we can get to help us find out what happened to this bird would be helpful.”

“The death of one fledgling doesn’t seem like much until you consider that only 30 chicks in the state have survived to become fledglings so far this season,” said Judy Camuso, assistant regional biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, which funds the Piping Plover and Least Tern Recovery Project. “Since we’re depending on these birds to return to Maine as adults to reproduce, every fledgling, chick and egg is absolutely critical to sustaining the population in future years.”

The birds nest on sandy Maine beaches from Ogunquit to Georgetown from June through August. Able to walk as soon as they hatch, chicks spend the summer hunting for bugs and larva on the busy beaches until they can fly. The young birds are vulnerable to the elements, malnutrition, natural predators such as hawks, fox and crows, and household pets like cats and dogs.

“To see a bird make it through the incredible challenges of an egg on the open beach and a tiny chick fending for itself only to die as a fledgling is beyond disappointing,” said Jones. “It’s tragic.”

For over 25 years, a coalition of groups—starting with Maine Audubon and now including the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands, and municipalities—has worked with local residents, landowners, and beachgoers to protect endangered piping plovers and least terns and increase their populations.

MAINE AUDUBON works to conserve Maine’s wildlife and wildlife habitat by engaging people of all ages in education, conservation and action. For more than 160 years, Maine Audubon has been connecting people with nature and leading science-based conservation in major projects across the state. An independent affiliate of Audubon’s national organization, Maine Audubon has seven local chapters, 11 nature centers and sanctuaries, and 11,000 members and supporters.

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