Welcome Back, Snowy Plovers

Volunteers Needed to Help Threatened Birds

Photo by Mike Baird, Creative Commons.

by Lissa Miner — published July 01, 2010

Despite the fog, we still think of summer as beach season here in the Bay Area. And that's one thing we have in common with the western snowy plover, a small bird that needs a lot of help to brave the crowds on San Francisco's beaches.

If you like walking on the beach and maybe need incentive to get out there on a regular basis, volunteering to watch, walk, and talk for the snowy plover at Ocean Beach or Crissy Field may be just right for you. And you can start on July 5, 2010, when volunteers will be cleaning up the beaches to get ready for plover nesting season (get more info here).

The snowy plover is one of 36 endangered or threatened animal and plant species that call Golden Gate National Recreation Area home and your volunteering can support the GGNRA's efforts to protect the plover in its San Francisco overwintering habitats from late July to mid-May.

Around the world, snowy plover populations are declining because we humans like what they like -- the beach. The plovers have an especially difficult time finding undisturbed beaches suitable for breeding and raising their young. In 1993 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the western snowy plover as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. While snowy plovers overwinter on Ocean Beach and Crissy Field, these beaches are too busy with human activity for the birds to breed successfully here.

Snowy plover live on the exposed stretch of beach above the high tide line and below the sand dunes, and in urban areas, below the break walls and roadways. Audubon Society volunteer Dan Murphy monitors the flock on Ocean Beach. "I always see something I didn't see before," he says. Plovers can fly but prefer to run along the beach in a distinctive "run-stop-run" pattern as they feed and watch for danger. They pick their food, especially flies, off the surface of the sand and seaweed. GGNRA Park Ranger George Dugerian likes to watch one of the plover's more surprising feeding styles -- running through a cloud of bugs with its beak wide open.

For about two months in early summer, the birds migrate to quieter beaches in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties as well as Point Reyes to nest and raise their young. Snowy plovers lay and tend their eggs on the open beach. The buff-colored, gray-speckled eggs blend with the sand. Even on quiet beaches, successful reproduction is not certain. People and animals can unintentionally trample the exposed eggs. Or, sharp-eyed raptors and scavengers snatch the eggs and young when the parents are off feeding.

You can help the shorebirds through two volunteer programs: Shorebird Docents educate people at the beach about plovers and how to share the beach with them. Docents with the Long-term Monitoring Program collect data to monitor the species' survival. Interns and volunteers record tide, weather, bird counts, location, behavior, and sources of disturbances and threats. Monitoring is scheduled twice per month on Wednesdays and Saturdays from July to May when small flocks overwinter on Ocean Beach and at Crissy Field.

"Volunteers serve as ambassadors and provide maps, guides, and talk with visitors about the snowy plover," explains GGNRA Park Ranger George Durgerian. It's a particularly good volunteer job for people who already come to the beach regularly, and working in pairs is a good way to combine volunteering and socializing. "It's a great way to get together with a friend," he says.

GGNRA Wildlife Ecologist Bill Merkle, who coordinates the Long-term Monitoring Program, says the count at Ocean Beach is between 20 and 30 individual snowy plovers each season. Over at Crissy Field, a few plovers showed up at the beach in 2002 after the restoration of Crissy Field and installation of the Wildlife Protection Area between 1998 and 2000. While the counts at Crissy Field are very low, typically one to three individual birds, their presence represents a remarkable re-introduction of a threatened species to a suitable habitat in the midst of a busy recreational area.

To volunteer for the Snowy Plover Outreach Program, contact George Durgerian at 415-335-8258 (cell) or email George_Durgerian@nps.gov and for the Longterm Monitoring Program, contact Bill Merkle at 415-331-2894 or Bill_Merkle@nps.gov.