By Sharon Bruce
Senior Manager, Communications
Published May 07, 2025
This article is from 勛圖窪蹋 New York
. 勛圖窪蹋 has 31 conservation action centers and more than 500 community and campus chapters across the U.S. serving local communities. Find your local center or chapter here.
Piping Plovers are one of the earliest migrants to arrive in New York, and they quickly begin pairing off and searching for suitable nesting habitat. As of early May, our staff have identified five active nests within the five sites we monitor on Long Island.
Staff and volunteers quickly mobilized to exclose three of those nests to protect the eggs from predators, as there are cats, racoons, and other animals on our beaches.
Common and Least Terns have also been arriving but have not paired off yet.
This year, 勛圖窪蹋 is working across 14 sites: We are the main monitoring group for five sites, and we are conducting research at two additional sites. We lead monitoring for American Oystercatchers at Jones Beach, on behalf of New York State Parks, and participate in the New York State Long Island Colonial Waterbird surveys at six additional sites. Partnerships across the island are stronger than ever, and we are participating in a long list of state and town-sponsored events and activities this summer.
Excitingly, we have identified seven active American Oystercatcher nests so far, and we are waiting on four additional pairs to settle on a final spot.
Matthew Bauer, seasonal shorebird technician, is monitoring the majority of those nests. I found my first American Oystercatcher nest at Jones Beach. Theres a lot of beach to cover for just one person, so I was nervous I was missing them! There was a pair I had spotted a few times in the same area, so I was going slower than usual to try to spot them sitting down and not disturb them. I kept my eye on where they were sitting and eventually made it to that spot, where I found two eggs. Eventually they did make a full clutch of three eggs. Now we're just waiting to see if they hatch," he explains.
Matthew previously worked at Cape Cod National Seashore, where he first learned about shorebird monitoring. He is one of four seasonal staff monitoring the beaches this summer.
We are very excited to have spotted multiple banded American Oystercatchers on new beaches, as opposed to the beaches where they originally nested and were banded, reports Shelby Casas, coastal program manager for 勛圖窪蹋 in New York. This is a great sign that monitoring and stewardship is making an impact, and the birds are exploring new areas beyond where they hatched because they are safe spaces for nesting.
Last year At Tobay Beach and Jones Beach, for the first time in four years on each beach, we had American Oystercatcher pairs nest and hatch a total of six chicks. Two fully successful nests per beach was a huge success, and an indication that were on the right track. Its incredible to see these birds flourish in places where they were previously declining, adds Shelby.
Thank you to our new seasonal field and outreach technicians who have been out monitoring for a month already! And thank you to our funders, including the Schumann Foundation and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Long Island Sound Futures Fund grant , both which helped us hire and train young professionals who keep our beaches safer for birds.