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Brochure: Share Our Seashore and Protect the Western Snowy Plover

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Brochure: Share Our Seashore and Protect the Western Snowy Plover WHAT CAN YOU PloversPlovers andand DO? YourYour DogDog ShareShare • Respect posted habitat areas. Each person who visits the Seashore affects the Snowy Plover’s OurOur • Stay at least 50 feet away from the ability to survive. birds and nests. Dogs are prohibited from Seashore • Walk dogs only where authorized Snowy Plover nesting beaches Seashore and always on leash. during breeding season. Leashed dogs are allowed at: andand ProtectProtect thethe • Properly dispose of garbage to avoid • North Beach, from parking attracting predators. lot south to Lighthouse Beach WesternWestern • Leave drift wood lying on sand. It • Kehoe Beach, from Kehoe provides nesting and feeding habitat creek north to cliffs SnowySnowy for plovers. Upright • Limantour Beach, east of wood provides perches the beach trailhead for bird predators. PloverPlover • Report unprotected nests. • Walk near water line on beach. • Share knowledge with others. CALIFORNIA COASTAL • Volunteer to restore plover COMMISSION’S WHALE TAIL LICENSE habitat. PLATE GRANTS PROGRAM For More Information: www.nps.gov/pore www.prbo.org 415.464.5137 Point Reyes National Seashore 1 Bear Valley Rd National Park Service Point Reyes, CA 94956 Point Reyes National Seashore Designed and Edited by Brooke Sommerfeldt Brooke by Edited and Designed WHAT IS A WHY ARE THEY THREATENED? SNOWY PLOVER? The Snowy Plover is a federally threatened species. There are 3 main factors that threaten the plover. Physical Description SOURCE CAUSE EFFECT • sparrow-sized shorebird Direct Plover Disturbance • Human activity interferes with • Adults leave nest • gray head and back with dark patches plover nesting and/or foraging • Eggs are exposed to wind, sun on either side of neck, behind eyes behavior and rain and forehead • Chick survival rates are • well camouflaged in habitat reduced Predation • Unleashed dogs • Loss of adults • Crows, ravens, harriers, falcons • Chicks are unable to find food • Fox, skunks, bobcats, raccoons, on their own coyotes • Loss of chicks • Adults attempt energy intensive process of re-nesting Habitat Loss • Beach development • Less space for Snowy Plovers Habitat • Non-native plant encroachment to breed successfully • flat, open coastal beaches, in dunes or • Less prey foraging areas near stream mouths • Less places to hide from predators • birds crouch in small depressions in sand to take shelter from the wind • year round residents of California, Oregon, PROTECTING SNOWY PLOVERS and Washington PROTECTS COASTAL DIVERSITY state beaches PROTECTS COASTAL DIVERSITY Life Cycle Plovers have lived on California Reducing species diversity makes • breeds mid-March beaches for thousands of years. future visitors' experience at the through mid-September Currently it is estimated that only Seashore less rich. • nests directly in sand 1300 Western Snowy Plovers are • feed on invertebrates in dry sand breeding along the Pacific Coast. Snowy Plovers are listed as a • lays 2–3 well camouflaged eggs threatened species and protected by over 4–5 days Plovers aren't the only species of the federal Endangered Species Act. • eggs are incubated for 1 month birds that use this threatened Visitors who disturb plovers, or • chicks are flightless for first month habitat. Approximately 490 species breeding habitat may be cited or and depend on males for protection of birds visit Point Reyes National fined. • female leaves a few days after Seashore. hatching eggs to begin a new nest.
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