Journal of a Sabbatical
The Plover Warden Diaries

April 12, 1999

a day at the beach

Plover Count: 10

The morning shift is usually very busy, but not today. I didn't contact a single visitor, and I only chased one dog. The warm spring temperatures we've been having plummeted last night. In fact the forecast called for wet snow after midnight last night and possible precipitation along with cold temperatures for today. We got the cold temperatures for sure, but thankfully no precipitation. I guess the cold kept the people off the beach.

Sometimes protecting the piping plover requires a lot of faith. Faith that the little federally threatened beings are really there. The first year I did the plover warden thing, I didn't see a single piping plover until nearly the end of May. The biological staff would provide us with counts from their weekly surveys and we'd just have to trust them. When you've got like 20 tiny sand colored birds nesting on nearly 6 miles of beach, it's worse than looking for a needle in a haystack. At least the needle isn't the same color as the haystack.

I didn't see any piping plovers today, but I did hear one. I tried to locate the sound and point my binoculars in the right direction but I saw nothing. Their call is so loud and penetrating that the one I heard could have been pretty far down the beach out of binocular range. I looked every time I heard it, but no luck.

Two red-throated loons were hanging around close to shore for the entire 4 hour shift. I watched them for a long time, trying to figure out where they'd come up after diving. While this was going on, a flock of a couple dozen herring gulls and great black-backed gulls swooped down on one spot diving frantically from the air at something I couldn't see. They were causing quite a commotion. It must have been a really big school of fish because they stayed there feeding greedily for some time. The loons finally noticed something was going on. They both swam over to where the gulls were and started diving. The feasting was still going on when my relief came on duty.