Many, many, thanks to Gail McCarthy and Editor Andrea Holbrook for the very much appreciated write-up about the Boston Film Festival in today’s Gloucester Daily Times. Extra special shout out and thanks for featuring The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay!
Many, many thanks to Gloucester Daily Times’s writer Ethan Forman and Editor-in-Chief Andrea Holbrook for today’s story about out GHB Plovers. Ethan always takes the time to get it right. Thank you!!!
By Ethan F orman Staff Writer
Despite the loss of some tiny chicks to storms this summer, efforts to protect the threatened piping plover shorebirds at Gloucester’s Good Harbor Beach by the Piping Plover Ambassadors and Mass Audubon were deemed a success this summer.
Three pairs of piping plovers nested at Good Harbor Beach, one more than usual.
Those watching over the piping plovers said they again spotted Super Mom, the onelegged piping plover who has been coming to the beach since 2016.
“It was fantastic in many ways,” said Gloucester resident Kim Smith, who heads up the efforts of about 20 Piping Plover Ambassadors. She believes climate change affected the piping plovers “in a funny way this year.”
“I think because of the extreme storms that we had,” she said. “We lost basically six chicks during extreme weather. That’s a lot.”
Despite the loss of those chicks, efforts to protect them and the survivors were successful, Smith said.
“We worked with Mass Audubon this year, we had many more eyes on the chicks, and if we hadn’t had those storms, we would’ve fledged
We’d like to send a heartfelt thank you to the Gloucester Daily Times staff writer Ethan Forman and editor-in-chief Andrea Holbrook for writing about our Good Harbor Beach Plovers. We friends of Cape Ann Plovers appreciate so much your thoughtful writing and taking the time to get the story straight!
Mass Audubon to help protect threatened plovers
By Ethan Forman
The sighting of the one-footed piping plover Super Mom, and others like her on Good Harbor Beach during the last week in March, coincides with human activity there meant to help preserve and protect coastal shorebirds during the busy summer beach season.
That includes the installation of symbolic fencing made up of metal posts and yellow rope around the dunes with signs letting beachgoers know the “Restricted Area” is “a natural breeding ground for piping plovers.”
“These rare birds, their nests and eggs are protected under Massachusetts and federal laws,” the signs read.
The nation’s oldest seaport is taking extra steps this year to monitor and minimize disturbances to Super Mom and others of her threatened species of small, stocky migratory birds that have made the popular beach their summer home in recent years.
On Monday, the city announced it had entered into an agreement with Mass Audubon to help with the monitoring and management of coastal nesting birds, including piping plovers, on the city’s public beaches, according to a press release.
The Piping Plover Project 