The piping plover is a tiny bird, but its return to New Hampshire beaches is a big deal. The species is endangered in the state, meaning when they come to the Seacoast to nest during the summer, extra precaution is taken to ensure they are comfortable and secure and their nests remain undisturbed. This becomes complicated when plovers and people are competing for the same beach space. 

On July 4, the New Hampshire Fish and Game Bureau arranged for coverage through 11 p.m. of a plover nest on Hampton Beach and another on Seabrook Beach. Eight volunteers worked shifts of two to four hours, making sure that no holiday beach-goers got too close to the nesting plovers. By July 4, the Seabrook plovers had already hatched four eggs; the Hampton plovers’ eggs are scheduled to hatch this week.

The plover nest on Hampton beach is set back from the ocean at the base of a dune. The nest is surrounded by a mesh netting cage and the area is roped off for 15 to 20 feet around the nest itself. The holes in the netting around the plovers is small enough to keep out the birds’ major predators—skunks, cats and gulls—but large enough to allow the plovers to leave the nest, which they do from time to time. The eggs are hardly ever unattended, though; plovers mate for life, and mother and father take turns sitting on the nest to maintain a constant temperature. Bill Deebs, a volunteer from Salem, N.H., says the plovers aren’t bothered by the netting and go about their business as usual.

“They’re as comfy as you are,” says Deebs.

This is Deebs’s fourth year as a plover volunteer for Fish and Game. A truckdriver, Deebs says he began volunteering because he wanted something to do with his free time. He first became aware of the plight of the plovers when a beach area at the Parker River Plum Island National Wildlife Refuge was closed off for the plovers’ nesting season. The following spring, he began volunteering. He has been volunteering at Hampton Beach on weekends since the plovers nested in early May.

Twenty-four hours after mating, the female plover will lay its clutch of eggs. Four to six weeks later, the eggs hatch. Twenty-four hours after hatching, the chicks will leave the nest and start foraging on their own. “They look like little marshmallows,” says Deebs of the newly hatched plovers. About a month after hatching, the chicks are able to fly, and the plovers begin their migration to South America. In the meantime, it is up to volunteers like Deebs to keep undesirables away from the sensitive birds.

“Most people are really understanding,” he says. “Every now and then, someone will tease you and get really close to the rope. But most people respect what we’re doing.”

The plover is ill-prepared to deal with predators. If an adult plover feels the nest is threatened, it will leave the nest and, according to Deebs, limp about as if wounded in an attempt to draw off predators from the un-hatched eggs. It is the hope of Deebs and other volunteers that such selfless heroics will not be necessary.

As of press time, the Hampton Beach eggs had still not hatched. According to Kristen Murphy, the piping plover monitor for New Hampshire Fish and Game, they are expected to hatch by July 15.

“We’re getting close,” says Murphy. “They’re within hatching range. They start to do a lot of shuffling around in the nest (when it’s almost time for the eggs to hatch).”

Murphy says there is some documented evidence that the plover chicks actually begin to chirp while still in the egg; this could cause the parents’ increased activity.

Thanks to dedicated volunteers, the piping plovers will hopefully return to New Hampshire’s beaches for years to come.

For more information, call NH Fish and Game Wildlife Services at 603-271-2461.