The arrival of three Piping Plover eggs at Wasaga Beach Provincial Park is a triumph for staff but the birds' choice to nest in a high traffic area of Beach Area One poses certain problems.
The presence of one egg was confirmed Friday. Another arrived over the weekend and Wasaga Beach Provincial Park superintendent John Fisher said a third egg was confirmed Tuesday morning.
Wasaga Beach Provincial Park natural heritage education leader Jessica Jackson and other staff members have been watching for signs of the endangered species for weeks.
Early in the month Jackson saw signs that the species she has been watching for four years had arrived.
Jackson first discovered the arrival of the rare bird on May 4, 2005.
Wasaga Beach Provincial Park staff had decided to let the point - where the Nottawasaga River spills into the bay - naturalize, hoping to attract shore birds. Leaving the beach in its natural state provides the birds an ideal place to nest.
That first year, the pair attracted the attention of birdwatchers and a group of volunteers formed to help patrol the site and educate visitors to the finicky nature of the bird. The pair demonstrated nesting behaviour but one bird disappeared.
In 2006, she discovered a single bird but a mate never showed.
Last year, Jackson said she saw one bird in August.
A fence keeps beach visitors off the point and a sign was erected last summer in an attempt to educate people about the efforts to bring the Piping Plover back from near extinction.
Two weeks ago, park staff saw four birds, and to their puzzlement they took to an area beside the highly traveled boardwalk, forsaking the protected point. Jackson said the birds do go to the point to find food.
The well-camouflaged birds are almost impossible to see on the beach. The male birds dig into the sand, creating so-called scrapes. He makes many to court the female. She may eventually choose one and lay an egg.
On Friday, an egg arrived.
Their presence is attributed to conservation efforts in the United States. The efforts began at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Lake Michigan where the birds are being identified and tracked.
The birds winter in the Gulf of Mexico and fly north to nest.
In 1985, when the Piping Plover was declared an endangered species by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, there were only 17 breeding pairs. Conservation efforts have brought that number up to about 55 pair.
Jackson has now launched an education campaign, letting people know the egg is there and that it must go undisturbed.
A fence has been erected around the nest and a special cage that keeps predators away but lets the parents come and go will be place on top of the nest Thursday.
Staff is looking for volunteers to help monitor the birds.
To volunteer call Jessica Jackson at 429-2516.
Bird watching
Piping Plovers are short and stocky and is often mistaken for Killdeer or Semipalmated Plovers.
They can be found on open sand or among sparse vegetation. Their backs are the colour of dry sand with a single black band on the neck and brow and they have black-tipped orange beaks and orange legs.
When the birds were spotted in past years a network of volunteers formed and helped patrol the sight and educate visitors. The first year, the couple even attracted a few enthusiastic birdwatchers.
