The Piping Plover Family Packs Its Bags And Moves to Buggier Sands

I arrived to Montrose as the sun was rising, to find Monty and Rose settled in a large patch of sand in the Montrose dunes, across from the pier.  One adult was clearly brooding the chicks, given the extended and fluffed wings.  Moments later, the adult got up, and 1, 2, 3 chicks scurried out!  I waited a moment and looked around carefully, hoping I had missed the fourth.  I scanned again and again, but over the next 30 minutes, would not locate a fourth chick and had to admit that we had lost it and would likely never know how.

The three chicks looked very healthy, feeding in the sand, one venturing fairly far out from the parents, to the edge of the large sand patch and into the grasses.  The parents seemed cool with it, not too worried.  Unlike yesterday, when two peregrine falcons had perched on the tower on the pier right across from the plover family, no peregrines were to be seen today, to my greatest relief. 

The chicks spend the first hour feeding then brooding under Mom or Dad, then repeating.  Margie and Robin joined me and we enjoyed watching them in the calm of the morning. 

Around 7:15 am, Rose and Monty stood erect, facing each other, apparently conferring with each other.  What conversation were they carrying with each other?  We saw the entire family move to the edge of the large patch, in a Northwest direction (that would be in the direction of the public beach) and disappear in the dune grasses.  We heard constant piping, then both Monty and Rose fly towards the fluddle by the sand volleyball area.  That struck us as very strange, that they would both take off and leave the chicks unattended.  But one came back almost immediately, landed in the sand where we had seen them all disappear, and the piping continued.  It struck me that the parents may had started moving the little family towards the fluddle, and I immediately texted Louise Clemency (FWS), who had left moments ago, about the possibility.   Louise came back and positioned herself in view of the fluddle, reporting a little bit later that she could see an adult plover land at the fluddle and be chased ferociously be a killdeer there. 

For the next 45 minutes, the back and forth repeated itself, with an adult plover flying from the dune grasses to the volleyball fluddle and back, except that each time the plover would land in the grasses closer to the volleyball fluddle.  We could not see the chicks, but we suspected that they were making their way through the grasses on their little toothpicks…I meant they tiny and long little legs.  Once again, we saw both plovers fly to the fluddle; Louise reported again on more fighting between the Piping Plovers and the Killdeer.  For the record, at least two pairs of Killdeer had nested in the volleyball area and fledged chicks; a third pair had nested more recently and was still raising young ones that one would best describe as “teenagers.”  Monty and Rose had decided that the Killdeer did not belong there anymore and that the fluddle would be theirs and their chicks. 

Based on where the adults landed when they came back, the chicks progressed to the path leading to the cottonwoods on the hill, then to a spot behind the tree swallow’s nest box.  From our spot, Maggie, Robin and I could no longer see well, so we decided to join Louise in the volleyball area.  What greeted us there could only be described as EPIC!  As in an EPIC battle between Monty and Rose on one side, and two adult Killdeer on the other, with three young Killdeer nearby watching.  Whereas the battle started with the Killdeer chasing the Piping Plovers away, the dynamics of the battle soon changed and it was Monty and Rose chasing the Killdeer away.  Inch by inch, the Killdeer backed off, and we soon observed three cotton balls on sticks coming down the edge of the dunes and onto the volleyball area.  Victory! Ah the brazen boldness of this pair of Piping Plovers who took on another species of plovers somewhat larger than them, dispatched scores of Karate moves, took a few bites of bugs in between, drew a line in the sand and established a clear line of demarcation spelling out “this is our territory and you stay out of it.”  At one time, Monty stood facing 4 of the Killdeer, and while I could not see his eyes, I am confident in saying, he did not bat an eye.

The move from the dunes to the volleyball area took all of an hour. Three puffballs on stick but two days old made the ~50 yard journey in one hour, encouraged by determined parents.