About ploveshack

Welcome to ploveshack - home of the amazing Piping Plover! I have spent countless hours observing and photographing these joyful little birds over the past 10 years. While I have been fortunate enough to win awards for photos of many different bird species, the Piping Plovers and their babies always steal the show! I hope the photos in my galleries make you laugh and inspire you to learn more about these and many other incredible birds.

The Piping Plover

Piping Plovers are a type of “shorebird” – birds that tend to hang out on sandy beaches. In the summertime, Piping Plovers can be found on the east coast of the US and Canada as well as the US Great Lakes region. Like many birds, Piping Plovers fly south for the winter and can be found in the Bahamas and other southern islands.

Piping Plovers begin breeding in April and May, with first eggs hatching in early June. Eggs are laid on a small scrape of sand above the high tide line. Once eggs are hatched, baby Piping Plovers can run around and feed themselves within hours of being born despite being only 2 inches high and weighing less than an ounce! Just like their parents, they eat various sea bugs to start, and eventually graduate to sea worms and small crustaceans.

On colder summer mornings, Piping Plover babies often huddle under a parent for warmth. This classic plover behavior usually only lasts for a minute or two as the babies are always eager to go back to eating and running!

The Piping Plover is a threatened bird species. Many beach areas or even entire beaches are closed in the summer months to protect them. Never enter protected nesting areas unless you have permission from local wildlife management organizations.