Piping Plovers - A Sign of Spring 3/6/2026

     For the first time this year I took a vehicle ride along the beach at Island Beach State Park.  Off road vehicle access has been closed much of the year so far due to the winter storms battering the beach.  It finally reopened yesterday and since it was cold and windy yet again, I opted for the warmth and comfort of driving rather than walking.  There wouldn’t have been much to mention about today’s jaunt except for a couple of little birds I noticed scurrying across the sand.  It was the fact that they were using their legs more than their wings that first caught my attention.  They weren’t sanderlings because they were too small.  When one stopped and turned around, I knew I had my first-of-the-year piping plovers.  

When I was young, the saying was that a robin was the first sign of spring.  Then I realized that robins are around all year.  Maybe different populations of American robins come and go throughout the year, but there are still robins here through the winter.  Now I see these little plovers as a harbinger of the incoming season.  Last year, I saw my first pair on March 14.  Today, a week earlier, I saw five- two at the north end of the park and three at the south end.  
Piping plovers.  © S. Weiss

In between the two piping plover sightings there was not much else to see on the beach.  The only other birds on the beach, besides gulls, were a huddled flock of sanderlings, a sole horned lark and two Savannah sparrows, one of those being an Ipswich.  Out on the water were just the usual subjects: long-tailed ducks, common loons, and the three scoter species.  Down at the inlet, there were about 100 dunlins resting on the leeward side of the jetty and a dozen or so purple sandpipers picking through the seaweed covered rocks.  A pair of harlequin ducks finally ventured over from Barnegat Light State Park to my side of the inlet, and a pair of American oystercatchers flew north along the surf line.

Clockwise from top left:  horned lark, harlequin duck, purple sandpiper.  © S. Weiss

Except for a state park police vehicle, I was the only vehicle riding along the beach at the time.  As the weather gets better, the beach traffic will pick up, and the little plovers will likely have picked some spots up near the dunes to try to raise a family.  Since the plovers are a protected species, the state will close those sections of beach to vehicles, raising the ire of many of the holders of mobile sport fishing vehicle permits.  I don’t mind it, but others, well, fuhgedaboudit!

*******
OTHER INTERESTING BEACH FINDS

Japanese skeleton shrimp found living in a piece of red beard sponge.  © S. Weiss

Portly spider crab living within red beard sponge.  © S. Weiss

A piece of wood with signs of once living shipworms (left) and sandcastle worms (right).  © S. Weiss

Sea anemone living within red beard sponge.  © S. Weiss







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