Piping plovers are persevering with their comeback story.
Massachusetts seashores for the second straight 12 months noticed extra nesting piping plovers than at any time within the final 4 many years, in line with Mass Audubon and preliminary knowledge from MassWildlife’s Pure Heritage & Endangered Species Program.
There have been 1,196 nesting pairs counted — a 1.5% enhance over final 12 months and a whopping 500% spike for the reason that program started 4 many years in the past.
Mass Audubon since 1986 has led the Coastal Waterbird Program (CWP) — a collaborative effort with federal, state, and native companies that displays, protects, and engages in conservation analysis relating to weak beach-nesting birds.
Again in 1986, there have been fewer than 200 breeding pairs of piping plovers within the state.
Whereas piping plovers stay a threatened species on each the federal and Massachusetts endangered species lists, knowledge during the last a number of years reveals that these birds are making progress towards restoration in Massachusetts.
Mass Audubon’s CWP protected 379 piping plover pairs this 12 months, which represents almost one-third of the state’s inhabitants and 17% of the whole Atlantic Coast inhabitants.
Plovers at CWP-protected websites produced 1.24 fledglings per pair in 2024 — basically unchanged from the 1.25 chicks in 2023, reaching what is taken into account a sustainable reproductive fee two years in a row.
“Piping plovers were on the brink of extinction in Massachusetts and now, through collaborative partnerships and strategic conservation strategies, this is a species recovering at an encouraging rate,” Lyra Brennan, director of Mass Audubon’s Coastal Waterbird Program, mentioned in a press release.
“Long-term investments in coastal communities and implementing a combination of wildlife management, science-based conservation, policy development, and education is paying off,” Brennan added.
Plovers fledged chicks at Dyer Prince Seaside in Eastham for the primary time ever this 12 months, whereas Scusset Seaside in Sagamore noticed its first profitable plover pairing in additional than a decade.
Different hotspots included: a 56% enhance in plover pairs at Lengthy Seaside in Barnstable; an 83% productiveness enhance in chicks fledged at Lobsterville Seaside in Aquinnah; and a doubling of plover pairs on Tern Island in Chatham.
Along with the key progress in piping plover populations, different weak coastal seabirds underneath Mass Audubon’s safety additionally noticed success this season.
Least terns noticed a 37% enhance in inhabitants in 2024 (4,901 pairs) after their numbers dipped final 12 months. Reproductive success held regular on the 42 websites protected by Mass Audubon, the place charges ranged from no fledglings to 1.35 per pair, making Mass Audubon-protected nesting websites essentially the most profitable least terns’ websites within the state.
As in 2023, predators have been crucial issue figuring out tern nesting success in 2024. There have been, nevertheless, vital predation and overwash occasions that impacted a number of key websites together with South Seaside in Chatham, which produced no least tern fledges in 2024, regardless of a colony measurement of greater than 100 pairs.
American oystercatchers additionally noticed one other consecutive file 12 months as 250 nesting pairs have been detected, representing a 5% year-over-year enhance.
Mass Audubon displays 30% of the state inhabitants and regardless of the fledgling fee dropping from 1.23 chicks per pair to .99 in 2024, that is nonetheless effectively above the .35 fledged chicks per pair fee estimated to take care of a secure oystercatcher inhabitants. Oystercatchers had the most effective productiveness of any state reporting these metrics, Brennan mentioned.
For extra data on Mass Audubon’s Coastal Waterbird Program and its conservation efforts, go to www.massaudubon.org/our-work/birds-wildlife/coastal-waterbirds.
