First day as Snowy Plover Docent in 2022

Snowy plover nest with 3 eggs. Screenshot from Matt Lau’s video on instagram

My first day as a Snowy Plover Docent in 2022 was in gale force winds at North Beach. Surprisingly, a few determined people ventured onto the beach including one brave person fishing from the shoreline. Matt Lau, who manages the program was unable to do his usual nest inspections since it could be dangerous to scare a bird off a nest in such high winds. It could put the nest in danger.

The ocean was covered in white caps and offered no chance of seeing whales in the distance. When the ocean is choppy, the whales swim farther offshore. In spite of the high winds, it was a gorgeous sunny day at North Beach.

We docents bravely set up our exhibit table in a spot that was slightly less windy. One of the best parts of being a docent is talking to people from all over the Bay Area and world. Today, we had visitors from as far away as Malaysia and as nearby as Inverness. A generous woman gave us her folding chair when she saw us wrestling unsuccessfully to assemble our broken chair.

The vast majority of visitors were wonderful and modeled best behavior in keeping their dogs on leash. Dogs must be on leash in the few places they are allowed in the Point Reyes National Seashore. Of course owners would prefer to let their dogs run free on the beach (who wouldn’t) but this is not the place to do it. Locals have an extra responsibility to model good on-leash behavior for visitors. In addition, having a leash is a safety issue with high tides and a rough ocean posing a real threat to dogs (and humans) who get too close to the water.

I had one negative encounter with a local who insisted she was entitled to have her dog off leash since she has lived here for 25 years and many people regularly break the off-leash rule. She did finally put her dog on a leash. It was a good humbling reminder to myself to pay attention to the things I feel entitled to do even though they aren’t allowed.

What you can do to help protect plovers

• Keep out of closed beach areas

• Bring your leashed dog to pet-friendly beaches

• Remove your trash and leave no trace

Plover update from Matt Lau this week

“As you know, the snowy plover breeding season is well underway. We found our first nest of the season on April 4th on North Beach. It’s been an uncharacteristically busy season since! Nest success is usually low during the first half of the season (i.e., March-May), but we have been able to find and protect nests with exclosures quickly to prevent any depredation by common ravens and other predators. Because of this, many nests have been surviving and several have hatched already!”

CURRENT STATS as of May 28:

• 21 total nests this season

  • 7 active nests

  • 8 hatched

  • 6 failed nests

• 6 chicks on the beach

• 0 chicks fledged

Check out Matt’s adorable video of a female plover brooding her nest.

Beach closures during nesting season

The annual weekend beach closure for nesting snowy plovers between the North Beach parking lot and just south of the mouth of Abbotts Lagoon will be in effect every Saturday, Sunday, and holiday starting this Saturday, May 28, through September 5 (Labor Day).

Learn more

Learn more about snowy plovers in Point Reyes