After a month of diligent parenting on a Truro bayside beach, an adult male piping plover we’ve dubbed the World’s Best Plover Dad successfully fledged all four chicks!
With his mate killed the day before the chicks hatched, he had an arduous task ahead of him. Remarkably, he met this challenge and certainly exceeded all expectations. He was chased by dogs and stalked by crows, but persevered nonetheless.
Best Plover Dad takes on dogs, crows to protect his brood
It’s somewhat uncommon even for a pair of plover parents to fledge all four chicks–local predators or inclement weather usually claim a couple young victims–but not on this guy’s watch!
Plover chicks need to spend most of their time feeding to grow fast enough to survive their first trip south for the winter. Hours after they hatch they’re running around on the beaches searching for invertebrates to eat.
Young plover chicks can feed themselves within a day of hatching. (photo by Rachel Smiley)
You can imagine how hard it would be for a single dad to keep track of four hungry, mobile toddlers. The odds were against this Fisher Beach family, but they proved to be an exceptionally successful bunch!
This is what those fuzzy hatchlings look like after about 30 days ! (photo by Rachel Smiley)
Truro also boasts one fledgling from Beach Point and three chicks from another Fisher Beach family along the Pamet River. Plovers have also been trying to raise young at Ballston Beach and Corn Hill but have not been as lucky. But we can’t forget about the terns! The Least Tern colony at Corn Hill is home to an estimated 6-10 nests, with a couple of their own chicks running around.
One of two Least Tern chicks spotted at Corn Hill (photo by Rachel Smiley)
This blog post was created by Rachel Smiley, a student at the University of Connecticut and a member of Wellfleet Bay’s Coastal Waterbird team this summer. Rachel is about to start a month-long field ecology course in South Africa.