By Lynne Hendricks
Staff Writer
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NEWBURYPORT — Beach-goers enjoying a day of play at Plum Island Point will have a front-row seat this summer to the threatened piping plovers' return from the edge of extinction.
Though the birds have made several attempts to nest on the southern end of Plum Island in recent years, this is the first year they have been successful.
City officials last week were delighted to find a handful of plover chicks emerge from one of the nests.
And just like a support team often assists first-time parents bringing a newborn home from the hospital, a fleet of helpers made up of city workers and volunteers from the neighboring Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island is clamoring to make sure the babies' environment is safe and secure as they fledge and grow, while working to reverse a downward trend that had threatened to silence the species forever.
The area where the babies have hatched has been closed to the public to allow them to grow and learn to fly.
"It's a big deal," said Newburyport harbormaster Paul Hogg, who is assisting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in looking out for the chicks. "We have three or four piping plover babies running around now. They have a large area blocked off, and we're trying to make sure people know it's endangered."
The newborns are tiny and blend in well with the sand, which makes it hard for people to immediately see them. Their arrival led the city to abandon plans to rake the beach of deposited trash and debris, using the heavy machines typically summoned for the job. The Department of Public Services instead fanned out across the Newburyport section of the beach and did the cleaning by hand last week.
"They're very small," Hogg said. "That's why we can't have the big equipment on the beach. Normally, we'd be down on the beach with front-end loaders, but we can't bring any heavy equipment on the beach right now. We have to be extra careful."
According to Jean Adams, outdoor recreation planner with the wildlife refuge, the southern end of Plum Island is traditionally the least successful location for nesting attempts by plover couples. She said the heavily populated portion of the beach is a tough environment to raise little ones, primarily because there are no closures in place to keep the public away from the birds and no plover wardens to mind the nests and protect the babies from dogs and other predators.
"They do generally nest there," Adams said. "But I'm thinking just from the past that it hasn't been tremendously successful."
This year, Adams said wardens are reporting 18 pairs of nesting plovers, with 22 chicks emerging on the refuge portion of the beach, which runs through Newbury, Rowley and Ipswich. At the state-owned Sandy Point, a public beach, there are five more pairs.
There are still nine active nests from which more chicks are expected to hatch. If they produce the typical four hatchlings each, the refuge could see a total of 58 chicks born this summer, which would make it a banner year for the rebounding birds.
Whether those hatchlings fledge or live the 29 days that it typically takes them to learn to fly is another matter. Adams said the birds on the southern tip of Plum Island have the smallest chance of survival given their exposure to humans.
"There's a lot of people on the town beach," she said. "There's a lot of trash, skunks, gulls, which will (be predators to) the chicks as well. Inviting people to the beach invites other predators."
With only 2,000 pairs of plovers left in existence, Hogg feels the community has an obligation to watch out for the few that have selected local beaches as a preferred nesting site.
"We're fortunate to have them here in Plum Island," he said.
Hogg's team of lifeguards, now on duty full time since school let out, is monitoring the roped-off areas of the southern section of beach where the babies have hatched to keep people out. Police have stepped up patrols of the area to ensure people aren't lighting bonfires at night and the animal control officer is making extra visits to the beach in the morning and evening to make sure people are complying with the summer ban on dogs on the beach.
And the city is taking special care to limit the use of its four-wheel, all-terrain vehicle in the vicinity of the nest.
"They can walk into the tracks and get stuck, and they can't get out," Hogg said. "Twenty-nine days after they hatch, they fly away, so these next couple of weeks are very important."
If you see the baby birds, the best thing you can do for them is keep your distance, Adams said. The birds can easily go unnoticed, so watch your step, she said.
"Literally, if you pulled out a jumbo cotton ball and just added a little head to it — that's how small they are," Adams said.
