Maine’s piping plovers are having their best year on record according to the latest census of the endangered shore birds.
Laura Minich Zitske, director of Maine's Audubon's piping plover and least tern project, said 174 pairs of nesting plovers were found by researchers this year.
Less than 20 years ago, there were just a few dozen nesting pairs in the state, Zitske said. But despite a rebounding population, the tiny birds aren't out of the woods.
"That’s fewer than 400 piping plovers in the state of Maine which is really, in the grand scheme of things, not a lot of birds at all," she said.
Plovers nest on sandy beaches on the East Coast. But development, human disturbance and predation have threatened the species' survival.
More than two-thirds of Maine's beaches have been lost as nesting habitat because of seawalls, jetties and high density housing, according to the Maine Department of Inland Fish and Wildlife.
The high number of nesting plovers this year indicates that conservation measures are working, Zitske said. Another promising sign is finding plovers nesting in places they haven't been recorded before, including Chebeague Island, according to Maine DIFW.
Plover monitors will have a fuller picture of this year's success after counting how many chicks survive to leave the nest and become fledglings, Zitske said.
Plover's recovery in New England is critical, since the birds are not doing as well on beaches in other parts of the East Coast, Zitske added.
"Our colleagues in the south and Mid-Atlantic and Canada are all reporting much more dire numbers than we are," she said.
