6 min read.
By Julie Prentice and Sydney Shepherd, Ontario Piping Plover Conservation Program
Bird conservation takes many different forms. This is the first blog in a new series, where we give you a special look behind the scenes at how the work is done in the field.
In the summer of 2025, there were only 4 successful Piping Plover nests on Ontario’s Great Lakes. With a population this size, every tiny nest is a very big deal. The Ontario Piping Plover Conservation Program, led by Birds Canada, works year-round to give these birds the best shot at raising their families successfully. Protecting them takes more than putting up fencing or chatting with beach users. It takes collaboration, science, strategy, and a whole lot of time spent in the sun and sand!
At first glance, it might look like our work is all beach walks and bird-watching. But, Piping Plovers are only in Ontario for about 3-4 months of the year, and those fleeting days in the sand are backed by months of preparation and informed by years of research, experience, and relationship building.
Birds Canada staff and partner organizations like the Canadian Wildlife Service and Ontario Parks, combine on-the-ground effort with research-backed strategies to make sure every Piping Plover adult, egg, and chick has the best chance of survival. Each winter, the program meets with local and international partners to share the previous season’s data, analyze long-term trends, brush up on new research, and update our protocols and strategies. We also meet with government partners to understand legislative changes, update our permits, explore funding opportunities, and more. Our field seasons can be quite unpredictable, so an important winter task is auditing our supplies to ensure we have enough to protect every nest without delay. By the time the spring arrives, we are ready for action!
Our team conducts public outreach year-round, and winter is the perfect time for booking events and planning social media campaigns. Piping Plovers are so rare that most people in Ontario have never heard of them, and you can’t protect what you don’t know. Support from the public is imperative to improve nesting outcomes, as there are numerous threats on beaches that can be influenced by changes in human behaviour. Outreach is also an opportunity for volunteer recruitment, which becomes very important during the nesting season!
The Arrival of the Birds
By mid-April, staff, partners and volunteers are out daily, walking and scanning large stretches of sand for the first plover pairs to return. Once a plover settles in, it’s go time!
Piping Plovers lay their eggs directly in the sand on open stretches of beach, meaning teams need to act fast to ensure they are protected. Every minute without protection is one where a person could accidentally trample the nest, a dog could chase the parents, or a predator could eat the eggs. Fencing around the nest reduces human disturbance and gives plovers space to protect their eggs and young. Shoreline closures ensure that the bug buffet along the waters edge remains available to chicks so they can grow up strong, evade predators, and prepare for migration. These closed areas protect the most critical zone, but it’s important to remember that Piping Plovers use the entire width and a significant length of the beach to forage and rest. This is why habitat protection and human behaviour change has to go beyond the nest to truly protect our plovers!
Responding in Real Time
Our program is all about adaptive management. This is where our winter preparation really shines. Based on monitoring data collected by staff, partners, and volunteers, we learn more about the threats and dynamics at each site in real time, and use research and decision frameworks to guide our actions. For example, rising water levels, sudden winds and storm surges can wash away a Piping Plover nest in a matter of minutes. Staff and volunteers work tirelessly, keeping a close eye on the weather to inform when, where, or how sandbags or other mitigation measures should be used. At some nest sites, wire cages we call “exclosures” are used to deter predators and increase the likelihood of the nest hatching; but this strategy might not be suitable at other sites.
Partners with Ontario Parks installing a trail camera to study predators and disturbance at a Piping Plover nest.
When performing any of these management strategies, experience, established protocols, and legal permits are required to ensure that the chosen actions best support the birds and nests. The wrong decision or delayed action can easily result in the loss of the whole clutch – the next generation of Plovers – so species-specific expertise and strong collaboration with local partners is absolutely critical.
Boots on the Ground
The most visible part of our program is nest monitoring. From dusk to dawn, every day of the week, staff and volunteers are out on the sand collecting data, answering questions from the public, and helping beach users learn about the birds they share the shore with. At Ontario’s busiest nest sites like Wasaga Beach Provincial Park and Toronto Island, volunteers can collectively log over 1,300 hours in a single season! Not only does the data give us real time information to protect the birds, but it also helps us prepare for future seasons and engage with beach users. Our interactions on the beach are overwhelmingly positive; people are curious, surprised, and often joyful to learn that a tiny, endangered shorebird has chosen their favourite beach to raise their family. Once they see those little cottonball chicks scurrying around on the beach, it’s love at first sight!
Signs of Success
Piping Plovers were listed as endangered under the United States Endangered Species Act in 1986, when the population had reached a record low of less than 15 pairs. Scientists in Michigan, where the last few pairs remained, developed intensive recovery methods that eventually allowed the population to grow and reestablish historic nest sites throughout the Great Lakes. Ontario has adopted these same proven methods, and we continue to shift them as new research is published and beach dynamics change. Since Piping Plovers returned to Ontario in 2007 after a 30 year absence, the province has fledged more than 180 chicks. Countless hours of research, preparation, problem-solving, and collaboration have paid off – the Great Lakes Piping Plover Population is now the highest it’s been since the Piping Plover was first listed as endangered in the US!
While we still face challenges, from increasing predator numbers to habitat loss, we’ve proven that people and plovers can successfully coexist. Having endangered Piping Plovers on an Ontario beach provides an incentive for many birders and nature-lovers to visit, and plovers can thrive on even the busiest beach. With science-backed strategies, conservation-minded habitat management, and plenty of teamwork, Ontario’s beaches can continue to be spaces where families – people and Piping Plover alike – can make summer memories.
