Worried by the high number of piping plover chick deaths this season at Western Beach, some Scarborough residents are calling for a meeting to discuss the possibility of enhanced wildlife management techniques that could be put into place before the start of the plover season next spring.
Ryan Wynne, the beach monitoring coordinator in Scarborough, confirmed this week that the chick mortality on Western Beach has been high this season, with only two of the 11 chicks hatched reaching the fledgling stage.
Overall, Wynne said, piping plover pairs hatched and raised 74 chicks to fledgling stage in all of Maine. That number is not as high as last summer, when 121 chicks survived.
“We still had a good year for fledglings,” Wynne said this week. “I think people, residents especially, are aware of the plover situation and have come to accept and, for some, even embrace the protections the town is affording them.
“I appreciate all the effort and thought it takes for people to make themselves familiar with (Scarborough’s) ordinance and I do believe that having areas of beaches with limited dog presence during the nesting season is making a positive difference.”
Wynne also said that “all of the chick mortality was due to predation, most likely from fox, crows and black-backed gulls. Nature cannot be controlled and we lost several chicks and nests due to predation and high tide washouts.”
But for local conservationists Marc Lausier and Eddie Woodin, there’s a strong feeling that more could be done to protect the endangered piping plover and least tern chicks after they hatch and before they’re ready to fly, even if it’s from natural predators.
Woodin, who’s been a longtime volunteer with Maine Audubon, said this week his hope is to “come up with constructive solutions,” such as perhaps installing an electric fence at Western Beach that could keep fox away from the beach area. He also suggested maybe cooping the chicks up at night, which is when they are most at risk from predators.
“This is a pretty serious situation,” Woodin said about the plover and least tern chicks that “disappeared,” particularly at Western Beach. “These are endangered species so they have to be protected,” he added.
Woodin also wants to put a plan in place before next spring because he believes Western Beach, in particular, has the potential to become “a major breeding colony” for piping plovers and least terns.
“Plovers are fairly tame and sedentary,” which is what makes them easy targets for predators of all types, Woodin said.
“There are all types of things I want to explore. Obviously something happened to those chicks and I want to build a plan” to bring forward, he said.
Lausier is on Western Beach every day “observing and photographically documenting the life cycle of” the piping plovers and least terns who showed up in Scarborough to nest this season.
“It has been suggested that as a consequence of the poor hatchling survival on Western Beach, which I empirically estimate to be 10 percent, that enhanced wildlife management (should) be seriously considered for next season,” Lausier said this week.
While both Woodin and Wynne feel that, for the most part, people have been good about following the new dog rules put into place following the killing of a piping plover chick by a dog in July 2013, Lausier believes that “frequent violations of the dog ordinance and insufficient wildlife management control (of) predators” have led to the piping plover chick mortality this season.
“These shorebirds are on the verge of extinction, so as a community it is imperative we do whatever is necessary to prevent that,” he added.
But, Wynne said, “I feel confident that the chick mortality was not due to pet dogs. There has been high compliance with the ordinance and some more identifiable signage is going in at Western Beach to make clear that no dogs are allowed. Part of the issue with dogs on Western is many people think it is still part of Ferry Beach.”
Although both Woodin and Lausier are troubled about the chick deaths, Wynne said this week that he is “not (overly) concerned as we had high nesting numbers and paired adults and are (also) coming off of the most productive season (last year) since Audubon and Inland Fish and Wildlife began recording nest/hatch data for the piping plovers.”
Wynne said that Western Beach had three successful piping plover nests, even though only two of the chicks survived.
“The season started off with very high numbers, similar to last year,” he said. “Fortunately, many of the pairs re-nested if their first attempt was unsuccessful.”
In all, he said, “I think Western and Higgins are great examples, despite some hardships the season, (those beaches have) seen increased populations of nesting plovers and colonies of least terns once again.”
No date has yet been set for the meeting Woodin hopes to hold during which he wants “those who’ve been involved this summer to debrief and get a baseline of knowledge so we know where to start” in terms of making any improvements.
A piping plover chick, only a few days old, on Western Beach in Scarborough.
At least a few residents in Scarborough are concerned about the rate of piping plover chick mortality, especially on Western Beach.
A piping plover with her chicks.
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