The Western Snowy Plover is a small bird that needs your help. Its population is declining and it is now listed as threatened. Understanding where the bird lives and nests, and sharing the beach with it, is critical to its recovery.
Nests Made of Sand
March through September is plover nesting season. Plovers make their nests by digging shallow depressions in open areas of dry sand. They lay 3 small speckled eggs that blend in very well. The coloring of the birds, nests and eggs make them very difficult to see by predators as well as people walking or riding along the beach. If disturbed, the Western snowy plover will fly from the nest abandoning the eggs or chicks.
Our Role in Sharing the Beach
If you enter a nesting area, an adult bird will likely leave its nest, abandoning its eggs. By sharing the beach, staying on wet sand, and away from signed or roped off nesting areas, you're helping plovers survive.
Problems for the Plover
- European beachgrass - Plover nesting habitat is shrinking due to the over growth of this invasive, non-native. European beachgrass can also provide a dense hiding place for predators, such as skunk and raccoon.
- Trash - Attracts scavengers and predators, such as ravens, that will eat the eggs or chicks.
- Dogs - Unleashed dogs can disturb nests by flushing the birds or stepping on the eggs or chicks.
- Inappropriate Use of Off-Highway Vehicles - Vehicles must stay in designated areas for the safety of other people on the beach and the protection of sensitive beach plants and wildlife.
Your Role in Sharing the Beach - How You Can Help
- Limit your use of dry sand areas, especially March - September.
- Walk and ride on wet sand.
- Stay away from closure areas.
- Leash pets or leave them at home.
- Pick up trash.
The Western Snowy Plover
By David Fix and Sean McAllister, Mad River Biologists
Tiny, cryptic, and as pale as the sands that surround them, Snowy Plovers are easily overlooked. At rest, pairs and small flocks hunker in hollows in or above the wrack line or in near-coastal dunes. Nesting birds lay eggs that are marvelously camouflaged. Unless feeding on the lower waveslope of an ocean beach or 
suddenly dispersing nearly at one's feet, these shorebirds are seldom noticed by those unattuned to their concealing behaviors.
The Snowy Plover is a member of a varied genus of small, simply-patterned plovers. One race or another of Snowy Plover is represented over much of the world. The western subspecies C. a. nivosus breeds locally in western North America, preferring the barren shores of saline lakes, playas, and coastal beaches for breeding. Most of the population retreats to the coast in winter, with a few birds in the San Joaquin Valley. In our region, they nest at Clam Beach, the south spit of Humboldt Bay, and on the Eel River sandspits south to Centerville Beach. Additionally, Humboldt County hosts a remarkable group of plovers which nests on gravel bars of the lower Eel River-- the only such site at which this phenomenon occurs in the West. Historically, areas within Humboldt Bay, the north spit of Humboldt Bay, Big Lagoon, Lake Talawa and the Smith River mouth also supported nesting Snowy Plovers.
Much in the sense that the Northern Spotted Owl came to epitomize the struggles among disparate forces involved in forest management, so, too, has the Western Snowy Plover become the flash point in issues concerning coastal land use and development. Only six inches in length and averaging less than two ounces in weight, the plover nevertheless looms large when and where its welfare is potentially impacted through man's activities. Snowy Plovers typically nest between the high-tide line and the foredune - a popular area among beachgoers, and in many places, gradually decreasing in area due to encroachment of the invasive European Beachgrass (Ammophila arenaria).
Historically, Snowy Plovers were more well-represented and more widespread along the coastal beaches of California, Oregon, and Washington. Through time, loss of habitat, increasing human use of beaches, and natural events have diminished their numbers. The Pacific coast population of Western Snowy Plover was listed as Threatened under the Federal Endangered Species Act in 1993. Threats face Snowy Plovers inhabiting both the gravel bars and open beaches. Gravel mining on the Eel must take into account potential impacts through habitat alteration and disturbance. Off-road vehicles, illegal driving on beaches, humans, and unleashed dogs all pose serious hurdles for the birds and for 'plover managers' who are charged with recovering the species' numbers and reproductive capacity under the Endangered Species Act.
Winter flocks of from a few to several dozen Snowy Plovers disperse in late winter and early spring, as they begin nesting in March. Two, rarely three, broods may be raised each season; following early nesting efforts, some adults may then pair with another plover at a different site and nest again. Both parents share incubation duties, but typically only male plovers take the job of raising the chicks, while females seek out new 
mates and repeat the nesting process, if enough time remains in the season. In their search for new mates, females may travel long distances. Female plovers which complete a nest in Humboldt County occasionally travel as far as the central coast of Oregon--and back!-- within a matter of days in search of available males. Since 1999, biologists of Mad River Biologists and Humboldt State University have closely monitored the entire local population of Snowy Plovers. A color-marking program has enabled efficient tracking of these birds and has provided high-confidence estimates of the population size, distribution, return rates, nesting and fledging success. Management of our local population involves emplacing wire-mesh 'exclosures' where appropriate in an effort to foil avian and mammalian predators. Additionally, biologists work closely with land managers and public agencies to identify sensitive breeding areas, provide signage, and raise public awareness of the plovers' general life history and the problems the species faces.
In 2001 the U.S. fish and Wildlife Service issued a draft recovery plan for the Pacific coast population of the Western Snowy Plover. Contained in the plan are specific recovery goals for each of six recovery units. Recovery Unit 2, comprising Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte counties, is tasked with reaching a breeding population of 150 birds. Currently, we stand at 42% of that goal, with 63 adults observed breeding during the 2002 season (1.Colwell et al. 2002).
Members of a local working group, established recently to coordinate recovery efforts on the northcoast, have their work cut out for them. Perhaps the most important element of recovery efforts is informing the public about plovers and how to help reverse their decline. Knowledge of the breeding period (March - September) will help people know when it is most important to avoid the areas above the high tide line where plovers nest. Understanding that Snowy Plover chicks tend to freeze in their tracks if pursued or threatened--making them highly vulnerable to unleashed dogs or vehicles --will hopefully help people to understand and obey leash laws and speed limits.
Getting to know Snowy Plovers brings a greater understanding and appreciation of the places we share with them. The future of these wonderful little beings is dependent on us. With cooperation by the general public, especially those of us who enjoy spending time on the beaches and gravel bars, there is hope for Snowy Plovers. Maintaining a keen awareness and respect for plovers and all life will help keep wild places available to us all.
All content and photos are protected by copyright laws and are the property of The Snowy Plover Working Group, Ron LeValley, and Brian Acord. Only with expressed written permission may content be used.
For more information please contact Maggie Donovan-Kaloust, Share the Beach Campaign Outreach Coordinator
maggie@friendsofthedunes.org