If you ever need a dose of cuteness in your day, just type “snowy plover chick” into your search bar and be prepared to giggle at the joyful little fluff-balls that appear on your screen. As we look ahead to Spring, we also look ahead to a time when we might get lucky enough to see these threatened birds nesting here in the Bay.
Western Snowy Plovers are a migratory species of shorebird that typically breeds from March to September1. They like to make their nests (small depressions, or scrapes lined with beach debris) in sandy, open terrain, which often means they are nesting in former salt ponds, adjacent to many of our restoration sites2. According to the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory (SFBBO), who conduct long-term monitoring of plovers, “the South Bay salt ponds support nearly 10% of the range-wide Snowy Plover population”3. And while industrial salt ponds may not be a natural landscape for plovers, who historically would have preferred sandy beaches, these ponds provide vital habitat for this Pacific population, which has been listed as threatened since 19931, 4. Western Snowy Plover populations are threatened by numerous factors including loss of habitat, human disturbance, invasive species, and predation1. Due to their status, land managers and their partners are practicing new ways to restore salt ponds in a way that balances the restoration of tidal marsh habitat with habitat for plovers (and terns too!)4.
Though Save The Bay does not lead plover habitat enhancement projects, our sites are adjacent to and often affected by plover nesting sites. Save The Bay’s largest habitat transition zone restoration project is along a levee at the All-American Canal in Menlo Park. Here, we are planting native plants on the edge of a tidal pond to create habitat for endangered and endemic species like the Ridgeway’s Rail and the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse. However, just on the other side of the levee, another pond is being managed and monitored as snowy plover habitat. When the plovers begin nesting, our partners at SFBBO let us know so that we can plan our work to avoid disturbing them. Our large bodies and voices can frighten plovers off of and away from their nests, so when they are in the area, we avoid it. We are starting to weed especially early at these sites that the plovers enjoy. This ensures we can reduce weed seeds spreading while the plovers do their thing!
If you’d like to volunteer with us, weeding plover-prone areas before the plovers become active, check out our calendar to sign up for our public programs. If directly contributing to a plover habitat enhancement project excites you, SFBBO hosts plover mud stomps throughout the winter, and other volunteer events throughout the year. We also encourage you to take a walk on the newly opened Flyway Trail down in Menlo Park. From here you can look across both the R3 and R4 ponds where you’ll see the tides flooding back into the R4 pond for the first time in over 100 years, newly planted native plants along the All-American Canal levee, and a pond managed specifically for plovers. If you’re lucky, maybe you’ll even spot one from afar! Happy birding!
