Piping Plovers Are Returning In Good Numbers

 HARWICH – Piping plovers are returning to the Nantucket Sound beaches in some of the largest numbers in years. The arrival of the piping plovers can mean some disruption to people accessing the beaches, but the town has a new plan this year.

 The first of the plovers arrived along Bank Street Beach on St. Patrick's Day, Conservation Administrator Amy Usowski said. There are now two or three pairs between Bank Street Beach and Merkel Beach and a few pairs on the Wychmere Harbor Club property. There is one pair and a bachelor to the east end of Red River Beach and going west from Bank Street Beach there are a couple of pairs on public and private properties and in the area of Sea Street. There is a pair at the Allen Harbor Beach Association property and Mass Audubon is reporting piping plovers on the Belmont condominium property.

 “In my time here the population of the birds have increased in Harwich,” Usowski said of the plover, listed as a threatened species in the state of Massachusetts. “For Harwich in mid-April the numbers are looking pretty good.”

Usowski said it’s still early in the plover migration and more birds are likely to arrive in the next few weeks. The conservation department has roped off sections of the dunes where the plovers are expected to build their nests. 

The town is required by the commonwealth to protect the plover chicks once they hatch and begin moving about. For several years the town has used jersey barriers to block off about one-third of the parking lot to the east end of Red River Beach, depriving parking well into the summer.

But this year, Usowski said, the state has approved a new plan that will allow for the parking lot to remain open. The plan is to block off the beach paths from the parking lot so the plover chicks will not be able to reach the parking lot. This plan may be a little more inconvenient for people walking from the parking lot to access the beach, she said. People will have to walk from the east side parking to the west where access points will be open along the wood revetment along that section of beach.

 “I hope the public will be happy there will be more parking at Red River Beach, and we won’t have to use the jersey barriers anymore.” Usowski said.