Outdoors: Rare birds return to Lake Erie shoreline

Jun. 12—A pair of shorebirds have set up housekeeping on the beach at Maumee Bay State Park. Piping plovers weigh all of two ounces. They are a sandy gray in color, making them almost invisible in the coastline environment where they live.

They are tiny and diminutive, a bit stocky in stature, and maybe just seven inches in length from the black tip of their beak to the end of their tail.

So, what is all of this fuss about?

The piping plovers in residence at Maumee Bay State Park are the first pair to nest in Ohio in at least 80 years.

"This is a really big deal," said Georgia Parham from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which set up an enclosure to protect the nesting site the pair of plovers have chosen.

"I think it is fantastic news, and I am very excited about this development," said Kenn Kaufman, internationally recognized avian expert and the author of numerous field guides on birds.

This rare and endangered shorebird used to nest all along Ohio's Lake Erie shoreline in the 1920s and 1930s, but according to research by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, a multi-pronged whammy forced the plovers away. They were the victims of disturbances at their nesting sites by people, dogs and vehicles, the destruction of beach habitat for development, the impact of predators, and extreme changes in water levels.

These factors all contributed to a precipitous decline in the piping plover population as the Great Lakes segment of these birds abandoned many of their traditional nesting sites and failed to fledge many young as they got squeezed into a smaller and more distant domain. They were in danger of going extinct without significant protective measures.

"At one time there was a good, healthy population and they were one of the shorebirds of the Great Lakes beaches, but after the beginning of the 1940s, they were no longer here along Lake Erie. It was a sign that things were really headed in a troubling direction," Mr. Kaufman said.

The Great Lakes region has historically hosted one of the three piping plover population groups in North America, the only continent on the globe where these birds are found.

The other groups nest along the shores of the Atlantic and in the northern Great Plains.

Just over three decades ago, biologists recognized that the Great Lakes piping plover population was in serious peril. In 1984, the USFWS determined that there were just 13 nesting pairs recorded throughout their range. The bird was officially listed as endangered in 1986, and things got worse before the Great Lakes group started a slow climb to stronger numbers.

In 1987, the USFWS started to use protective enclosures around the nests to reduce the impact of predators, such as raccoons, skunks, weasels, rats, gulls, ravens, and crows, but in 1990, just a dozen nesting pairs were found throughout the Great Lakes. By 1995 the total nesting pairs reached 21, and five years later there were 30 nesting pairs documented.

"Since the recovery efforts got going, they started to come back," Ms. Parham said. "In 2009 we had a pair nest on a beach in Wisconsin for the first time in many years, and we are just starting to see them nest on other Great Lakes beaches, like this pair on Lake Erie. It has been a slow expansion into their former range, the places where they haven't been seen in a very long time, so this is pretty exciting."

As the piping plover population continued to recover, the nesting pairs total in the Great Lakes region reached 50 by 2003, and hit 71 by 2009. There continues to be some fluctuation in the recovery trend, Ms. Parham said, with 64 nesting pairs of Great Lakes piping plovers documented last year.

"This year, so far, we've counted 70 nesting pairs, and I'm told we may still have one or two more," she said. "Piping plovers are nesting on all five Great Lakes again this year."

The Cornell Lab points out that although conservation efforts have helped, "the population in the Great Lakes region hasn't yet reached its stated recovery goals of 150 breeding pairs."

Ms. Parham said that besides the protective enclosure around the nest that allows the piping plover pair to move in and out with ease while hindering any potential predators, an area around the piping plover nest at Maumee Bay has been cordoned off with "Protected Species Breeding Area" signs and barricades to make sure beachgoers remain clear of the site. Maumee Bay State Park personnel and the Ohio Division of Wildlife are also playing a key role in the protection of the nest site. Ms. Parham said there is still plenty of beach area open to the public.

"The protected area is about 2.76 acres of beach, which is a little more than 13 percent of the total beach area available at Maumee Bay," Ms. Parham said.

Mr. Kaufman said the nest should contain a clutch of four eggs, with an expected incubation period of 26 to 28 days. The plover parents take turns incubating the eggs, but once the eggs hatch, the male will provide most of the care and protection for the young plovers which will not be able to fly for an additional month.

"We'll have our fingers crossed for the next two months," he said. "These parents are one-year-old birds and this is their first attempt at nesting, and frequently younger birds are not as successful at nesting as older adults, but we're hopeful things work out."

This nesting pair of piping plovers apparently shared the same wintering grounds on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, Mr. Kaufman said.

"We know that they wintered within a few miles of each other on the Gulf coast of Florida," he said. "These birds are color-banded so each individual can be identified. People monitor them on the wintering grounds and are able to track them."

The male at the Maumee Bay State Park nest was fledged last year in a nest on a busy Chicago-area beach along Lake Michigan. The female at Maumee Bay was hatched in a nest at Presque Isle State Park in the Pennsylvania shoreline of Lake Erie.

The plover pair that fledged the Maumee Bay male has returned to that Montrose Beach site in Chicago this year but lost their first clutch of four eggs to a skunk that was able to breach the protective enclosure. A larger and stronger structure is now in place around that nest, and the Chicago Park District announced that the pair is making another attempt at nesting and at least one egg was in a new nest by Thursday. The Chicago beach nest also previously had been threatened by an array of other potential predators, including raccoons and coyotes.

"These events are just a few examples of the many challenges that this pair and all the remaining pairs of Great Lakes piping plovers must face to breed. Without our continued care and involvement, even fewer would survive," Chicago Park District officials said in a statement.

As an added layer of safeguarding, the Chicago nest is monitored by a team of volunteers to keep humans, dogs, and potential predators away from the site. A similar troupe with the same charge is providing sanctuary for the Maumee Bay State Park nest.

"Our main role in this is to keep track of what the birds are doing, and most importantly, keep people and dogs outside of the perimeter," said 67-year-old retiree Jack Burris, one of the 30-some volunteers from the Black Swamp Bird Observatory helping to shepherd the young Maumee Bay plovers through this initial nesting attempt.

The nest-watchers, affectionately referred to by Black Swamp Executive Director Kimberly Kaufman as "plover-achievers", work two-hour shifts in groups of four. Mr. Burris said the majority of the park-goers have been very cooperative in honoring the protected zone around the nesting site.

"It feels really good to be a part of this and have so many people helping out and contributing to this effort," he said. "The success of this nest is very important. We are witnessing history in the making."