Western snowy plover needs our help

VIC LEIPZIG AND LOU MURRAY

A cute little fluff-ball of a bird lives among us and it needs our

help.

The Western snowy plover is about as adorable as a bird can get.

With a high, round forehead, snowy white plumage marked with just

enough brown to camouflage it against sand, and a wind-up toy walk,

this tiny shorebird is struggling to survive in our midst.

Western snowy plovers like to breed at the beach. And that has

been their downfall. Our beaches are no longer natural. The highly

groomed, bare stretches of sand that we enjoy basking in are no more

natural than the macadam parking lots beside them. A natural beach is

vegetated. Not in Huntington Beach. Mechanized rakes roam the beaches

at night, stripping the sand of Styrofoam cups, cigarette butts and

other detritus of human visitation. Those rakes also prevent any

native plant seeds from taking hold, sprouting and thriving.

If you want to see what an untouched beach looks like, hike down

to the Santa Ana River mouth and take a gander inside the chain-link

fence enclosure there. That’s a natural beach. It’s covered with dune

plants. Right now, beach primrose and sea rocket are in bloom,

covering the sand with patches of yellow and lavender. Later in the

season, deeper purples of sand verbena will join the mix along with

whitish plumes of ambrosia.

This small patch of natural beach at the far end of Huntington

State Beach was set aside for the nesting of endangered California

least terns. But the area attracted more than terns. Western snowy

plovers began nesting there as well. To escape the hubbub of the tern

colony, the plovers set up housekeeping outside the fence.

Unfortunately, that choice hasn’t worked out so well for them.

Although Huntington State Beach is a “no dog” beach, many people

assume that this doesn’t apply to their dog, and that the rule

certainly doesn’t apply to what they consider this no-man’s land of

ungroomed beach. So they let Fido run off leash. Keep in mind that

dogs aren’t allowed in this area, even on leash. Now think what dogs

off leash do to the poor little plovers that are attempting to nest

outside the fence.

For a couple of weeks, the plovers must sit on their eggs

undisturbed. As soon as the fluffy little specks of chicks with

toothpick legs hatch and dry off, they follow their mother around.

But they’re not out of danger yet. They won’t be able to fly for a

month or so after hatching. Their down feathers are too fragile to

allow them to take flight, and their little wing muscles aren’t

strong enough anyway.

So for the six weeks that the new brood is in the egg stage and

still in downy feathers, they are vulnerable. If they’re running from

dogs, being harassed by crows or being scared by the close proximity

of people, they’re not eating. And if they don’t follow their mother

to learn how to find insects under the beach plants and in the

seaweed that washes up at high tide, they won’t survive. They need to

use what energy is in their tiny bodies to learn survival skills that

will allow them to grow up, not use that energy running from danger.

Unfortunately, most Western snowy plover chicks don’t survive that

first week.

Western snowy plovers begin nesting in early March. Because they

don’t all nest at the same time and because they may nest more than

once during a season, their breeding season is a long one. It runs

from early March to September. That’s a lot of time for the species

to be vulnerable.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist Loren Hays and State Parks and

Recreation biologist Dave Pryor are doing something to help the

little plovers. They’ve organized a group of beach sitters who will

guard the plovers and least terns at the Santa Ana River mouth. Local

environmentalist Lena Hayashi has offered to head up the group until

a leader is found among the new beach sitters.

Volunteers will take shifts of two hours each from sunrise to

sundown during nesting season. Their job will be to educate the

public about the plovers that are nesting outside the fence, and to

encourage the public to limit their walking to the area of wet sand.

The most difficult part may be to convince the public that dogs are

not allowed at all, not even on leash. But that’s the law.

The Western snowy plover is a threatened species, primarily

because its choice of nesting sites conflicts with human use of the

beach. This one small area has been set aside for endangered least

terns and threatened snowy plovers. We hope that the public will

respect the right of these birds to use a part of the beach to

procreate.

We also hope that people will go to Huntington State Beach and

hike across Talbert Channel to the Santa Ana River to enjoy the show

of watching these birds court, nest, and rear their young.

And we hope that at least a few of you will call Lena Hayashi or

e-mail her at lenahayashi@socal.rr.com to volunteer to be a beach

sitter. You get free admission to Huntington State Beach and the

satisfaction of knowing that you’re helping a really adorable little

bird keep its tenuous hold on life.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at vicleipzig@aol.com

.