Lyra Brennan stood on a near-empty beach in Barnstable, scanning the sand for adult piping plovers and their newborn chicks.
A plover chick is about the size of a cotton ball, and the same color as the speckled sand. So they鈥檙e hard to spot with the untrained eye.
But 鈥渙nce you see them, it鈥檚 like you start seeing them everywhere,鈥� said Brennan, the director of Mass Audubon鈥檚 Coastal Waterbird Program. She peered through her binoculars. 鈥淚 mean, I hear them in my sleep.鈥�
Suddenly Brennan spotted a chick near the waterline, jogging on its spindly legs. The little poofball was undeniably adorable.
鈥淭his never gets old,鈥� Brennan said.
The tiny shorebird with a telltale squeak 鈥� that鈥檚 the 鈥減iping鈥� in its name 鈥� has made a remarkable recovery in Massachusetts. When the federal government listed piping plovers as 鈥渢hreatened鈥� in 1986, there were only about along the whole Atlantic coast, and fewer than 200 in Massachusetts. With protections, the birds have rebounded, their overall numbers more than tripling.
Most of the success has been in Massachusetts. Experts aren鈥檛 quite sure why the state has seen such a bird bonanza compared to others, but it鈥檚 home to , nearly half of the entire Atlantic coast population.
Those are 鈥減retty incredible numbers for a species whose population was so depressed,鈥� said Carolyn Mostello, a 鈥奵oastal waterbird biologist for MassWildlife. 鈥淢assachusetts residents should be really proud.鈥�
This bird version of the 鈥溾�� comes despite a long and varied list of threats. Piping plovers nest on the beach, laying eggs in shallow scratches in the sand. The birds feed along the waterline, running back and forth across the beach. This open lifestyle leaves them vulnerable to predatory birds like grackles and crows, feral cats, skunks, coyotes, and pet dogs; storms and floods that wipe out nests; and habitat loss from coastal erosion and development.
Another threat: huge summer crowds, which include some visitors who resent beach restrictions and willfully ignore them, and some who accidentally step on the tiny birds.
鈥淭his beach will be absolutely full of people on a nice hot summer day,鈥� said Brennan. But somehow most plovers navigate the crowds.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 kind of the magic 鈥� we can have it all,鈥� she said.
But in some southern states, including Maryland and Virginia, , so the bird remains on the list of federally threatened species. All the states with plover populations have federal protections, use similar interventions, and have dedicated volunteers to count birds and warn beachgoers away from nests, said Maureen Durkin, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. So experts can鈥檛 fully explain why Massachusetts is leaving other states in the dust.
鈥淭here are so many factors that could be contributing,鈥� said Durkin.
First, she said, Massachusetts has a lot of coastline, with beaches facing in all directions. That can be helpful to plovers when a storm hits.
鈥淢aybe the east-facing beaches got hit really hard, but the north-facing beaches are okay,鈥� she explained. 鈥淪o we have a lot of nests that survive flooding.鈥�
Massachusetts may have another advantage, said Durkin: food.
Plovers in some southern states . In addition to the ocean, they also need access to mudflats or a calm body of water, like a bay, where they can forage. Experts aren鈥檛 sure what鈥檚 driving this need, whether it鈥檚 the quality of food, the landscape, predators, or something about the birds themselves.
Plovers in Massachusetts, on the other hand, have multiplied by feeding near the ocean alone; the seaweed washed up on New England beaches seems to supply an abundant source of food.
鈥淭here鈥檚 lots of bugs in there, they鈥檝e got tons of stuff to chomp on,鈥� Durkin said. 鈥淎nd you get that on all kinds of beaches, from heavily developed ones to really remote ones.鈥�
That was evident on the Cape Cod beach where Brennan and her colleague鈥�, Coastal Waterbird Program Manager Jamie Infanti, pointed out plovers pecking at piles of seaweed, shells and other debris.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e going to like this fresh seaweed,鈥� said Infanti. 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to have a lot of little bugs and flies. You鈥檒l sometimes see chicks like chasing flies around the beach, which is really fun to watch.鈥�
But if food and habitat are behind the Massachusetts plover comeback, then there鈥檚 no easy way to transfer that benefit to southern states. And with climate change, Massachusetts may lose its advantage.
鈥淲e鈥檙e currently seeing the impacts of climate change, but into the future it鈥檚 an even bigger concern,鈥� said Brennan. With rising seas and stronger storms eroding beaches, habitat may disappear, she said. And warming waters may alter the food supply.
鈥淚 think the more research, the better, so that we can keep preparing and keep figuring out where the best places are for the birds to be, as climate change continues to accelerate,鈥� she said.
There鈥檚 another looming threat to the plovers: a possible rollback of federal protections under the Endangered Species Act. The Trump administration recently that would 鈥� people would still be prohibited from directly hurting or killing threatened animals, but they could more easily destroy habitats.
Chris Allieri, the founder and executive director of the nonprofit , said he鈥檚 hopeful federal lawmakers will put politics aside and stand up for endangered animals.
鈥溾�奣o this day, wildlife conservation and endangered species protection is still an issue that unites Republicans and Democrats,鈥� said Allieri. And the piping plover is the perfect poster child, he said.
鈥溾�奍 think a society that comes together around a little bird, if that鈥檚 something we can strive to be, we鈥檙e going to be better people overall,鈥� he said.
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