During my last trip to Cape Cod, my husband and I were walking along the beach and we saw these cute little birds all over the place that we hadn't really seen elsewhere. We took a video of them walking around and then later in our trip we learned that those cute birds are called piping plovers. These birds are so precious to Cape Codders that some beaches on the Cape are actually closed to protect the breeding habitat of the piping plover!
Piping plovers are shorebirds that migrate to the Cape in the spring from the coasts of the Southern US and Caribbean. They can also be found in the Great Lakes Region and parts of Canada.
They nest in little depressions in open flats, laying four eggs to a clutch. When the chicks hatch, they can run around and feed themselves within just a few hours. Impressive, huh?
Piping plovers nesting in the Great Lakes are listed as endangered and piping plovers nesting along the Atlantic Coasts and in the northern Great Plains of the US and Canada are listed as threatened. In Massachusetts, the plovers are protected under the Federal and Massachusetts Endangered Species Act.
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