open
I don't know what made me check the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge site yesterday but I'm glad I did. I was delighted to find that the entire beach is now reopened. After checking the tide chart I made plans for a long beach walk this morning.
The beach at Parker River closes each year on April 1st for the nesting season of the endangered piping plover. Both piping plovers and least terns nest on the beach. Here's the final plover update from the refuge biologist for the 2020 season:
"This year we had 34 or perhaps 34.5 pairs of piping plovers. (I think one male lost his mate early on and re-nested with a different female, hence the half-pair.) This is well below last year's record high of 50 pairs, but preliminary reports indicate that the plover population increased statewide this year. And although we had fewer pairs of plovers on the Refuge this year, productivity (chicks fledged per pair) was above average, with a total of 44 fledglings."I arrived at parking lot 3 at the mid-point between high and low tide. There were a few people sitting on the beach and a few people walking. I headed south, soon finding myself alone with sanderlings and sea gulls, walking, listening to the sound of the ocean.
It was a delightful walk.
