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FWS introductory video sequence with music
Snowy Plovers are a small shorebird that nest along the coastlines.
They are about 6 inches small and they are mostly white and very cryptic
and they have some gray and brown on them and then they have a few characteristics
that they have very dark eye lines by their faces and around their eyes
and their neck collar, but they blend in very well with the sand and a lot
of the debris that is on the beach.
FEMALE #2: They match in closely to the beach and look like other birds,
but you often find them up in the upper reaches of the beach.
A lot of times, people see the shorebirds down in the waves looking for food,
but Snowy Plovers are in the upper portions of the beach.
They work the rack line for their food and so if you see a bird that is lighter in color,
about this size, a little neck ring, that's likely a Snowy Plover.
MALE #1: Snowy Plover females will lay three eggs typically in a nest.
It will take up to 28 days approximately to hatch those three eggs.
When they hatch, the chicks are fully feathered
and their eyes are open just like chickens or ducks.
FEMALE #1: Plover chicks are like little cotton balls with tiny, skinny legs.
They can start moving around on their own within about an hour after they come out of the egg
and can immediately start foraging.
FEMALE #2: A lot of people have a hard time seeing the adults,
so actually seeing the chick is that much more difficult.
They are white with salt and pepper and a little bit of sand color, so they look often
like the fine grains of sand that we see on the beach.
FEMALE #1: Plovers have an interesting strategy to try to enable them
to have more young produced during the summer season.
So, what they do is both parents care for the incubation of the eggs.
They take turns sitting on the egg and after that chick has hatched,
a lot of times the female will go off and find another mate
and start a whole new nest while she leaves the male to take care and raise the young.
That again allows them to have more chicks through the season
so they are not waiting each time, but kind of a modern day bird.
FEMALE #2: Snowy Plovers prefer open sand habitat that is fairly flat
with sparse vegetation and a little driftwood, but they like to be able to see all the away
around them so they can see predators approaching them.
FEMALE #1: Plover habitat also includes the rack line, the area where vegetation and drift
from the sea piles up at the end of the high tide mark.
In there, it is rich with food.
There are small crustaceans and insects and other invertebrates
that the Plovers look to forage along that rack line.
Plovers are considered a migratory bird.
Though, here in Oregon, some of them actually do stay year round.
About March, they start coming back if they have gone south towards Mexico and California
and that begins the breeding season.
Officially, we consider it is from March 15th to September 15th.
FEMALE #2: What does a Snowy Plover nest look like?
That's a good question depending on where they are on the beach.
Some of the Plovers like to embellish their nest with pebbles.
Others will use what is already there for them and so often will have large seaweed
and kelp wash-ups or they will find pieces of grass or wood to pull in.
They will hide them underneath beach grass clumps.
MALE #1: They particularly like white things.
They tend to pull white pebbles into their nest, sometimes white plastic, white pieces of shell.
In fact, one of our favorite nests of all time was in the middle of a white coat hanger.
FEMALE #1: So, they can be very creative, but we always tell people if you just were
to take the heel of your shoe and press into the sand that could be a Snowy Plover nest.
Not only are the nests cryptic but so are the eggs.
You realize how well they can blend in with everything else around them.
FEMALE #2: Plover numbers began to decline around 1970.
In Oregon, the state listed them as threatened when they saw those numbers dropping.
They didn't become threatened under the Federal Endangered Species Act until 1993.
By then, in Oregon the numbers had dropped down to about 30 individuals.
FEMALE #1: Historically in Oregon, there were about 20 sites
where Plovers nested on the Oregon coast.
But through the years, urbanization, habitat degradation
and habitat destruction have limited the spaces available for Plover nesting.
On the Oregon coast, we had open sand areas with low-lying mobile dunes
which created ideal nesting areas for Plovers.
But over time with the encroachment of beach grass, a high dune was created,
a very high stable dune, which led to a narrow beach being created and fewer spaces or places
for Western Snowy Plover to nest.
MALE #1: They have lost an enormous amount of their habitat.
They have also suffered a lot of impact from recreational activity.
It is very difficult for them to survive where there are a lot
of humans around and a lot of disturbance.
FEMALE #1: Several of the Snowy Plover nesting areas are close to campgrounds or a lot
of human activity and this human activity can attract predators, such as crows, ravens,
raccoons, opossums and those predators will actively seek out Plover nests, eat the eggs
and sometime try and catch adults and eat them.
FEMALE #2: The birds sometime have a pretty tough time out there
and what has caused their decline has a lot to do with what people have done on the beach
and what we have done right along the coastline that is adjacent to the beach.
The habitat is changing.
They are trying to evolve as fast
as the changing habitat, but that is not always possible.
FEMALE #1: Plovers do not see the boundaries that we humans have put on the landscape.
They nest on the beach, half of which is owned by the State of Oregon
and the other half federal agencies own and so we have found through times
that there is no way we are going to recover the species
if one agency tries to take it on by themselves.
And we began working together as say a Snowy Plover working team to work together
on leveraging funds for habitat or for studying and also
for matching the recreational restrictions that we apply to their nesting areas
so that would come to different beaches and see the same thing.
The Snowy Plover working team is made up of a variety of agencies, including Fish & Wildlife
and our state agencies, the Department of Fish & Wildlife and Parks.
We also have a variety of other federal agencies,
BLM who I work for and the Forest Service.
One of the first things that the Snowy Plover working team is we concentrated our efforts
on learning how to remove European beach grass.
This plant is so tenacious.
It loves being in the open sand.
It thrives in that and it gets buried by windstorms and it still grows up to the point
that it can have roots 25 feet long.
So, we had to learn a little about this plant and we started taking time
to try different methods and find the best way to get rid of it.
So, over time, we have actually restored habitat on up to 500 acres and a few new sites.
It is key for this bird to be able to have habitats
that are well distributed along the Oregon coast because if something happens to one
of the sites they can go to another site and be able to renest.
FEMALE #2: The range-wide recovery objectives for the Plover are to have 3,000 breeding adults
from Southern Washington down to Southern California 10 years prior to delisting
and 5 years prior to delisting an annual productivity rate of one fledged chick per male
and also mechanisms in place to ensure the long-term protection
and conservation of the species.
MALE #1: We tried to have a balance of management on the beech
between recreationalists, natural resources, scenic values, all sorts of things come
into play when we're looking at managing the beaches for the people of Oregon.
MALE #2: When you visit the beech, you'll see symbolic fencing,
which is essentially roped areas and posts and do not enter signs
that delineate where the Plovers like to nest.
We want people to recreate on the beach, but at the same time we need people to be aware
that there are animals out there that are trying to have children just like we are
and it helps really to give them a little bit of space.
That's really what we're asking people to do when we say share the beach.
FEMALE #1: People can share the beech with Snowy Plovers
by observing the signs, not entering the nesting areas.
Know before you go.
Check regulations.
Tell your friends about Plovers.
Share your knowledge about the birds with others so they can learn too.
FEMALE #2: One of the main things that I do as a beach ranger is try
to help people share the beach with the Plover.
One of the main ways they can do
that is controlling their animals they have with them on the beach.
Keeping them on leashes and areas where they are allowed and then keeping them
out of areas where dogs are not allowed.
The main predators for Plovers can be coyotes and animals that look just like their dogs,
so a lot of times they may scare the animals off their nests.
You can also share the beach by taking out with you what you bring in.
Don't leave any trash behind.
FEMALE #2: Most people are supportive of the message that we send
out and that of sharing the beach.
They want to recover this species and they're willing to have some inconvenience to maybe
to go to another area or give a wide berth to a nesting zone, especially when they understand
that out of all the Oregon coast we only have a few miles of restricted areas.
FEMALE #1: Not only are we asking the people to share but beach,
but Plovers are sharing the beach because they are moving between California, Washington,
going to Oregon and they kind of flip-flop around.
So, you see that we're all working together and that's what we're trying to get people to do is
to work together to make it better for both the people and the Plovers.
FEMALE #2: Since the Plover working team began trying to recover this species,
we've made some great efforts and some great strides.
We've been able to see those 30 birds come up to almost recovery levels
of about 250 birds on the Oregon coast.
From the efforts we've done with creating the 500 acres roughly of beach grass removal
and the restrictions where the public has helped us by cooperating and staying
out of those areas, and the predator control measures that we've also put in place,
and so we think with the sharing the beach and the efforts that we're doing that we've going
to help this species make it and we're quite excited about that.
Thanks for watching