Fewer piping plovers nesting in Lakeshore this year.

After more than two decades, the battle to save the piping plover still continues.

The shorebird went on the U.S. endangered species list in 1986 when only 11 to 14 pairs where estimated to exist in the Great Lakes region. Since then, the population has tripled to 63 or 64 in 2007, including 24 pairs that nested in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

A PIPING PLOVER in an "exclosure cage" at Sleeping
Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. (Photo courtesy
of Alice VanZoeren)

This year, however, there are only 19 nests at the Lakeshore.

“We think there’s a shortage of females this year so we have several males that haven’t been able to pick up mates,” said Alice VanZoeren of the Great Lakes Piping Plover Research and Recovery team. “And nobody is quite sure why that’s happening.”

VanZoeren said she is unsure if the number of plovers is down overall.

Lakeshore wildlife biologist Steve Yancho said hurricanes from previous years, and possibly a form of botulism contracted by birds in the Lakeshore starting two years ago, are chief suspects in the decline of female plovers.

The wet spring season hasn’t been helpful to nesting birds, either, although that hasn’t been the case for plovers at the Lakeshore.

“We haven’t lost any nests to flooding but region-wide they have,” she said, recalling one nest that was lost in Ludington State Park. “We were just lucky that all the birds (at the Lakeshore) put their nests in high locations so they didn’t get washed out.”

Alice VanZoeren said the birds are being cared for and will do fine.

VanZoeren is employed by the University of Minnesota for plover research, and along with four park employees and several volunteers spends days assessing nesting cites at North Manitou Island, Platte Lake Point and Glen Haven.

“In the spring we try finding the plover pairs, just locating where they are. Then we close off stretches of beach, not the whole beach, just certain areas so they can go undisturbed,” she said.

As of last Friday, VanZoeren said there are eight nests on North Manitou Island and nine on the
mainland. She said six nests on the island and seven on the mainland have hatched, with each nest holding approximately four eggs.

The nests are fragile and the chicks are vulnerable to gulls, crows and some animals, Yancho said.

“Unfortunately, the piping plover and the human both like the same type of beaches so the issue in a lot of areas is to separate bird use and human use,” said Yancho.

In addition to marking off portions of the beach with caution tape, an “exclosure cage” is placed around the nest. The cage is big enough for the plovers to walk through but small enough to shelter them from any predators.

Yancho said it is important for park visitors not to bring pets into plover nesting areas, especially this time of year.

Once a nest is located and protected by an exclosure, VanZoeren said the nests are monitored with a spotting scope to make sure the eggs are being cared for by the parents.

“At that point our job becomes basically keeping track,” she said. “Finding out how many chicks there are and if one disappears what happened to it.”

And if one of the parents disappear, VanZoeren said the nest may face trouble.

“Because if one of them gets eaten or captured or something, the other adult will have to incubate but eventually will have to go eat and leave the nest and give up on the nest,” she said. In order to save the eggs, the research and recovery team will rescue them from the nest and send them to University of Michigan Biological Station in Pellston for incubation.

This year, 12 eggs from the Lakeshore have been sent to the university’s biological station.