Celebrate all things Piping Plover! Come meet and mingle with the Maine Audubon Coastal Birds Crew and volunteers who help monitor the beaches throughout the season. • Plover crafts and costumes • Face painting • Book presentation • and more! Learn about these endangered shorebirds and how …
Piping Plover
Let’s Give Least Terns Some Love!
While we often focus on our Piping Plover friends, another endangered species we protect is Least Terns. Least Terns are small seabirds listed as endangered in Maine; they were the first species listed under Maine’s own Endangered Species Act. Least Terns and their more abundant cousins, Common …
Chicks on the beach!
Exciting update from the coastal birds crew: On Monday, May 27, we saw the first Piping Plover chicks on one of our Maine beaches! Though no one was able to capture any photos from that day—the chicks are quite small, move around a lot, and are super fast—we are delighted at the prospect of chicks …
Piping Plover Party on Crescent Beach
Join us on Crescent Beach, Thursday, July 27, 3-5 pm to celebrate the endangered Piping Plover! Learn all about these unique local birds and how you can help them survive the rest of the nesting season. Enjoy face-painting, crafts, book readings, and say hello to Beacon the Puffin of the Maine …
Commonly Misidentified Species: Plovers
COMMONLY MISIDENTIFIED SPECIES: It’s not always easy to identify Maine’s most beloved birds. Maine Audubon biologists and naturalists commonly field identification questions along the lines of “is it this, or is it that?”. Many species look similar from a distance, but there are some great telltale …
Four Lessons I Learned from Working with Piping Plovers this Summer
Hello! I’m Emma Sloan, a biologist with Maine Audubon’s Plover Crew. We have spent this summer protecting the endangered Piping Plover along 22 beaches in southern Maine. As a new graduate and new resident of Maine, I have learned so much through this work. So, before the season ends, I wanted to …
Big Update on a Successful Piping Plover Season!
Somehow it’s August! The piping plover breeding season is beginning to wind down, birds are taking off from Maine beaches to migrate South for the winter, and Maine Audubon’s Coastal Bird Crew is breathing a little easier. 170 young birds fledged off of beaches from Georgetown to Ogunquit is no …
Dune Grass Habitat: Essential For More Than The Birds
I recently was surveying for some of the last piping plover chicks of the season on Old Orchard Beach when a woman approached me, pointing to the bright green runners of beach grass at my feet. "What type of grass is that?", she asked to which I replied, "dune grass", caught off guard by such a …
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 …