June 22: Snowy Plover Docent Adventures
Aiden and I were joined by a great group of docents on our second time as Snowy Plover Docents: Maria, Marianne, David, Lindsay, and Becca. We were stationed at the same location - just outside the North Beach parking lot within scope sight of a nesting plover. Throughout the day, we talked with 148 park visitors about the snowy plovers!
We saw two plovers — a female sitting on her nest and a male, presumably her mate, who was foraging nearby and visited the nest. The male plovers are a little darker in their markings and sometimes have a slight red patch on the top of their heads.
Docents took turns roving the beach in pairs. The objective is to let dog owners know why it’s important to keep their dogs on leash (since plovers don’t pay attention to the boundaries roped off by the park service — they roam!). We only spotted a couple of off-leash dogs the whole day which is great. Dog owners we spoke with were awesome and many came over to look at the nesting plover in the scope.
While roving the beach, David and I saw an osprey carrying a fish from the ocean — probably the same osprey I spotted on my last visit to North Beach. However, the most unusual thing I saw on the beach was a beautiful Siamese cat on leash. Yes, a cat at the beach! The cat seemed a little overwhelmed with all the sounds and smells at the beach.
Looking forward to what we’ll see next time!
