Piping plovers doing better in NJ

PLEASANTVILLE, N.J. (AP) — More piping plover pairs nested in New Jersey this year — 114 compared with 98 last year — with an average of 1.24 young per nest reaching independence.

That’s a 19% increase in pairs, according to the 2019 nesting results report by the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey and the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife Endangered and Nongame Species Program.

But it’s still not back to the long-term average of 117 pairs, and is well below the peak of 144 in 2003, the report states.

Depredation, particularly by red foxes, continues to plague the endangered species that must build its nest in small impressions on beach sand.

But residents in Brigantine and Stone Harbor have protested state programs to protect the plovers by trapping and killing red foxes there.

Seven Brigantine residents this year were taken to court and fined by the state Department of Environmental Protection for allegedly interfering with the trapping program there by removing traps and taking other actions.

The real problem is the high density of predators, said David La Puma, former executive director of the Cape May Bird Observatory, now with Cellular Technologies of Rio Grande.

The company makes technology to help researchers track bird species.

“There’s data not only for New Jersey but many other states where beach nesting birds are in peril ... and where predator density is the main problem,” La Puma said.

At the recent Wilson Ornithological meeting in Cape May, La Puma said a Louisiana Audubon scientist described problems for species with declining population called Wilson’s Plover there.

“There has been coastal restoration work done to create habitat,” La Puma said. “But increases in bird population are lost to predators.”

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