As the Piping Plovers are set to descend among the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, volunteers are needed to help monitor Leelanau’s unofficial bird and endangered species.
“Mid-April, the Piping Plovers will arrive and set up their stony little nests all along the beaches of Sleeping Bear Dunes. Working with the Park Service Wildlife Biologist, I am hoping to recruit volunteers for two projects to support the ongoing Piping Plover Recovery Project,” Mary Ellen Newport said in an email. “(Step one) Set up fencing and signage in approximately nine reliable nesting sites on SBDNL beaches. With enough volunteers, this will be a two-day effort: a training day (early April) and a work day (later April).”
The second step is nest monitoring the plovers from April through July as needed in the afternoons and evenings on Leelanau beaches with known nesting plovers.
Monitoring will involve reporting piping plover sightings and, where possible, reporting banded individuals. According to Newport, locating piping plovers may involve incidental public education, helping park visitors understand why dogs are not allowed on specific beaches.
“There are some cool opportunities to travel to the Manitou Islands for intrepid souls,” she said. “This is an opportune time to support a highly successful recovery project. I can testify to the many benefits of making friends with a mile of shoreline in our beautiful National Lakeshore.”
The piping plover monitoring team at SBDNL has a combined 68 seasons of piping plover monitoring.
Last year, SBDNL hosted the oldest known female piping plover named “Gabby” the ripe age of 15-years-old.
A Piping Plover named “Yibbie” was the first piping plover spotted at Sleeping Bear Dunes on April 9. The first plover sighting was April 8, 2023. The earliest sighting was April 8, 2023. The earliest plover sighting to date is April 7.
The majority of the Piping Plover population resides in the southern part of the park, Glen Haven south, where some 80 pairs are located, including 50% of those pairs located on Dimmick’s Point on the southeast corner of North Manitou Island as of 2023. This island part represents a quarter of the world’s population nesting during any season.
SBDNL partners with the University of Minnesota, Detroit Zoo and the Fish and Wildlife Service, along with other organizations and volunteer groups, to name a few.
