July is here, and while fewer Piping Plover nests are popping up on sandy beaches, a lot of work remains for the Coastal Birds Crew to ensure that young flightless chicks successfully fledge off Maine’s coast. Piping Plover chicks fledge or can fly short distances on the beach within 25 days of …
Endangered & Threatened Species
2021 Piping Plover Census Smashes Last Year’s Numbers, But Not Without Its Challenges
Over 120 pairs of endangered piping plovers (Charadrius melodus) were recently counted during the annual Piping Plover Census: a combined effort led by Maine Audubon, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Maine Department of Inland Fish and Wildlife, and a diverse network of volunteers. Monitors traveled …
Tiny But Mighty: Plover Chicks Return To Southern Maine Beaches
At first glance, there is nothing cuter than a cotton ball-sized piping plover chick scurrying about the water’s edge or tumbling through tufts of dune grass. Now imagine staring at the Maine Coastal Birds Crew calendar of 65 anticipated hatch dates for piping plover nests ranging from Georgetown to …
Visiting Nesting Piping Plovers with Congresswoman Chellie Pingree
Maine Audubon had the honor of visiting with some nesting Piping Plovers at Popham Beach State Park this morning with Maine's 1st District Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, updating her on our progress protecting these federally threatened shorebirds. Congresswoman Pingree has long been a champion …
It’s Mayhem: Maine Audubon is busting out all over
In the same way that blossoms started to unfurl and migratory birds began to appear, so too did restless Maine Audubon staffers, tentative at first, and then all at once in a glorious riot of activity. May was the busiest month we’ve seen in ages, in terms of our interaction with the public. …
A Push to Protect Endangered Species and Biodiversity
It's worth reminding yourself once in a while that life may not exist anywhere else but Earth. We are incredibly lucky to be sharing this planet with the products of billions of years of evolution, in which life has wriggled itself into seemingly every nook and cranny possible. We live among birds …
Celebrate the wonder of trees in Maine Arbor Week
In 1978, the Maine legislature designated the third week of May “Arbor Week,” a result of successful lobbying led by a classroom of students from Dover-Foxcroft. They successfully made the case that the national Arbor Day holiday in April, which actually started as a movement to restore trees in …
The Coastal Birds Crew 2021 season is off and running
Spring is here and that means so are the Piping Plovers and Least Terns. The 2021 Coastal Birds Crew is already hard at work scanning sandy dunes and seaweed-covered wrack lines from Georgetown to Ogunquit. Over the past few weeks, the crew’s primary focus has been surveying for Piping Plover tracks …
Maine Audubon Excited About Kennebec River Wildlife Recommendations
Many species of fish travel great distances during their lives, and many move between the ocean and freshwater streams and rivers in order to complete their lifecycles. Unfortunately, dams built on those streams and rivers are like locked doors keeping fish from their required habitat. For centuries …