Climate | Bird

Shorebirds' Revival

Extreme weather may benefit shorebirds, but humans make it complicated. .

When Samantha Robinson saw “JYJ” from a mile away in a spotting scope, she knew he would turn away soon, as he always did. He was shy and evasive, always avoiding humans.

JYJ is a piping plover, named after the number on his banded flag that researchers gave him seven years ago. He was never trapped again by humans afterwards.

“Every plover is different,” Robinson said. She started studying piping plovers and other shorebirds as a part of a Virginia Tech team in 2016.

“You have plovers that are gonna stick right next to their nest and let you know that they’re upset with whatever you’re doing right in your face, and there are other ones that all go fly away and hide and you'll never see them again.”

Piping plovers are brownish-grey shore birds with round bodies. Their orange legs and orange black-tipped bill are the keys to distinguishing them from other plovers. As a conservation-reliant species, which means their survival depends on active human management, piping plovers are in need of scientists’ monitoring, as well as the public’s cooperation.

They are among the two-thirds of bird species under threat by climate change in North America. But recently, scientists have found that a certain amount of sea-level rise and hurricanes may benefit the shorebirds.

From 2013 to 2018, Robinson’s Virginia Tech team captured and banded 152 adults and 353 chicks on the Fire and Westhampton barrier islands in New York. It’s part of a series of studies on how piping plovers reacted to the habitat change spurred by Hurricane Sandy nine years ago. As strong winds removed vegetation and expanded the beachy area, new habitats suitable for piping plovers were created. But scientists also pointed out that artificial facilities are hindering barrier islands from natural movement.

In late March, piping plovers will fly via the Atlantic Flyway to breed on the beaches of New York and Connecticut. They will nest in the soft, sandy area with sparse vegetation along the shores.

Source: National Audubon Society

In the late 18th century, plovers were the popular target of hunters. Their feathers were used for decoration on hats and clothes. With the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, they were under protection and their population increased until 1950. Due to habitat loss, as more beaches were developed for recreation, the number began to decline again.

In 1985, the Atlantic Coast and Northern Great Plains populations were listed as threatened, and the population in the Great Lakes watershed was listed as endangered, according to US Fish & Wildlife Service.

Although growing, the distribution of gaining population of the Atlantic Coast piping plover remains uneven

The New England recovery unit constitutes a stronghold, but neither New York-New Jersey nor southern states achieve the delisting goal. If achieved, they can be removed from the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants.

1 9 9 2   1 9 9 6   2 0 0 0   2 0 0 4   2 0 0 8   2 0 1 2   2 0 1 6   2 0 2 0   0 200 400 600 800 1,000 1,200

NEW

1,200

ENGLAND

1,000

800

600

NY-NJ

400

SOUTHERN

200

0

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The 2021 Atlantic Coast piping plover population estimate of 2,289 pairs is 22 percent higher than the 2018 estimate, and almost triple the estimate of 790 pairs at the time of the 1986 ESA listing.

The largest and most sustained population increase has occurred in New England. The number has reached its recovery goal, 625 pairs, for almost 20 years.

For theNew York/New Jersey and Southern populations, however, the minimum subpopulations haven't achieved their delisting goal yet.

In the NY-NJ recovery unit, the population surpassed the recovery unity goal of 575 pairs twice but it's not sustained. The number should maintain for five years before being considered for the removal from the threatened list.

The Atlantic Coast population is only one part of the species' range. In the late spring and early summer, piping plovers travel to the coast, Great Lake and Northern Great Plains, where they mate, hatch, forage, and then bring chicks back to the southern states, and sometimes further, for the winter.

On the northeastern coast, scientists have studied their reproduction and behavior for decades. In 1985, Virginia Tech Shorebird Program recruited a team of researchers to monitor and study breeding plovers in Virginia and Maryland.

It expanded to New York in 1992. They found that plover demography and growth are dependent on habitat availability, the amount of human recreation in the area, and how much the area is subject to disturbance by storms.

After Hurricane Sandy hit and badly damaged much of the Atlantic coast in 2012, they started to look into how the shorebirds respond to change. Would this help or hurt their ability to nest?

less damage --> more damage

In 2019, the research team led by Katie M. Walker published the first study on the hurricane overwashing effect. It means that the flow of wind and water can bring sand inland and change the sediment composition during storm events. They found that the piping plover population increased 93% by 2018 from pre-Hurricane Sandy on Fire Island and Westhampton Island, with most pairs nesting in new habitats created by the storm.

Hurricane Sandy removed vegetation and created more beachy areas that piping plovers use to nest.

The study also found that some engineered habitats, including manipulated dunes and restoration areas, are gaining piping plover populations too. However, since these places were meant to reduce future movement of islands and increase human activities, the article suggested that dune development should not be considered a management strategy.

Similarly, another U.S. Geological Survey research team led by Sara Zeigler, also found that a certain amount of increase in sea rise and increased likelihood of overwash can benefit the shorebirds.

Based on the prediction model, as rates of shoreline erosion increase, Fire Island would become narrower and flatter, with more flooding in housing communities and businesses on the island. And shorebirds like the piping plover would move to new habitats created by this erosion.

(Data provided by Sara Zeigler; Graphic by Chuqin Jiang)

“I think we’re still very much in the learning phase,” Zeigler said. She pointed out that scientists are struggling to find that balance between when a sea-level rise is going to be healthy for some of these ecosystems and when it is going to be too much.

“We will get to a point, inevitably, where there's so much water and the storms are so powerful, that we're going to start to see our islands disintegrate. And we did see that in some places in the Gulf.”

The west end of Long Beach Island without human facilities moved in 35 years while the east was stabilized by buildings and other constructions.

But, storm surge is not all good for piping plovers.

Shelby Casas, the Coastal Program Associate at Audubon New York, pointed out that the early storm during the nesting season can have fatal effects on the shorebirds. The flood can wash out nests where birds have already laid eggs. Then, the birds have to start again.

On July 7, Casas just finished an outreach lecture at Jones Beach Energy & Nature Center. When she took a walk on the west end of the beach afterward, she noticed a sign saying “no dogs on this site” was ripped off from the fence and broken in the middle.

Shelby Casas, at the west end of Jones Beach, July 9, 2022 (Photo by Chuqin Jiang)

Mia Ramirez, Environmental Education Assistant from the Jones Beach State Park, who accompanied Casas for the walk, said that lots of people feel they have an ownership of the beach.

“They're like, ‘Why do I have to worry about this bird? I've been taking my dog here for years and years and years…Why is someone telling me not to (do it)?’”

Casas said she was prepared for that. She’ll put up a new sign. In the past few years, they only used signs simply telling people to stay out of the nesting area. But this year, the signs have more explanatory notes and illustrations drawn by local school kids and other designers.

Mia Ramirez, holding a sign designed by kids, July 9, 2022 (Photo by Chuqin Jiang)

“Our goal this year with the signs was kind of more to draw people in. And get the message across that we don't want dogs on these beaches, but to also explain why,” Casas said.

This is a part of a three-month study to review the outcomes of different outreach efforts conducted by Audubon New York. Apart from putting up signs, the team has organized more frequent outreach activities compared to previous years, like tabling at multiple sites along the north and the south shore that have shorebird activity.

But the difficult part is to make people aware that the birds are actually here.

They are good at camouflage — it’s hard to tell them from the sand from a distance. And not many people know that piping plovers love walking on the sand and nesting right on the beach.

On Rockaway Beach in Queens, the west part of Beach 38th Street is closed for protecting the breeding birds. A symbolic fence was put up, visually warning people to keep out of the area. On the sign, the illustrations of least tern and piping plover are under the red, uppercase letters ‘Restricted Area’.

Symbolic fence on Rockaway Beach, Aug 14, 2022 (Photo by Chuqin Jiang)

Only posted and roped-off areas are set up, instead of permanent physical fences, because they can be easily washed away by the high tides, according to Kim Smith, a wildlife conservationist and landscape designer. On some beaches, when piping plover couples start to build their nests, smaller steel-wire fences are built around them. The holes on the fences are big enough only for piping plovers to run through, keeping other larger predators, like feral cats and raccoons, and pets out.

Even well-behaved pets can be a threat to the birds. Unleashed dogs can be mistaken as predators by plovers. To protect their chicks, they will pretend their wings are broken and lead the dogs away from the nest. But this strategy may let their nest open to real predators. And the trash left by beachgoers attracts raccoons and foxes, which can disturb and eat chicks.

Smaller fence put up around the nest, Jones Beach, July 9, 2022 (Photo by Chuqin Jiang)

Some beachgoers might spot and disturb them on purpose. More than one researcher explained that they normally don’t share the nest location data with the public because they are afraid people will find the nest and get too close to them.

Last month, NYC Plover Project, a volunteer group, tweeted that a 12-day-old piping plover chick was stepped on by a beachgoer. After being seen dragging its broken leg on the beach in Queens, it died next to its sibling the following day.

Sharing the shore and the planet

After conducting more than ten outreach events this summer, Casas planned to sort and analyze data. Next year, the result of the disturbance data collection survey will be available.

Ramirez is considering pursuing her master's degree in community psychology. She realizes it’s important to engage the public and persuade them to change their behavior.

Robinson has a new role to play, the Program Manager of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. From a researcher to an officer, she wanted to connect science and management better and make a difference.

The piping plover is an indicator, helping scientists to get a sense of the coastal ecosystem under climate change and human disturbance. And it’s not the only shorebird species under threat.

In Barnegat Light, New Jersey, a habitat restoration project was conducted to remove the vegetation and create a shallow pond starting in 2018. (Photo from New Jersy Department of Environmental Protection)

“I do think that birds are a good entry point for the average person into the challenges that the natural world faces with climate change.” Scott Weidensaul said, who is the author of A World on the Wing, and an ornithologist focusing on migratory birds.

In Connecticut and New York, piping plovers and boat-tailed grackles are listed as high climate-vulnerable species, according to the National Audubon Survival by Degree Report. Further sea level rise could permanently consume coastal habitats.

“And they are going to be facing an increasingly difficult battle of having their nest survive as the intensity of storms increase,” said Dustin Partridge, the director of Science and Conservation at Audubon’s New York chapter.

Partridge said these birds lack attention because people are always thinking about urban birds in Central Park. But it’s also important to look at the shores. The city is, after all, largely islands.

An American Oystercatcher and two piping plovers, Rockaway Beach, Aug 4, 2022 (Photo by Chuqin Jiang)