Piping Plover Chicks Just in time for Easter!

Thanks for the articles. I wonder how much this will effect us this year. Will the Plover Police still be blocking off beaches? Do they have the authority to do so anymore?

As a love kiting we should do what is under our control for protecting them and share the environment since nothing is better then a nice clean beach with some birds around while we having a nice sesh

Let's make Kiting a very sport that appreciate what we have in nature and not destroy what is out there

This is a copy-paste from another thread... personally I think we need to win over the conservationists so learning about the endangered species is one step in that direction:

Plovers are classified as "threatened", not "endangered", in MA. Endangered is worse.

I went and I did my own research. See below:
http://www.fws.gov/northeast/endangered/PDF/Piping_Plover_five_year_revi...

See pages 139 onwards for data on Northeast plover population... Their target is 2000 pairs in the total northeast and the population seems to have stabilized since 1999 and as for New England the abundance objectives have been reached arouns 1999 already

I.e. yes- the plovers are still classified as threatened but their numbers are stable and conservation targets have been met.

The moral of the story - if you are ever confronted by a birdwatcher, you can have your facts straight to show that

a) You care about protecting wildlife.
b) You are aware the plover number have actually been increasing over the past few years and that you'd like to keep it that way.
c) You believe that kiting is minimal impact activity and that we can coexist and enjoy our sport along with the wildlife.

As a community we will be better off winning over the conservation community rather than complain about closed off beaches. Right now my course of action is simply to be friendly and reasonable to anyone that I meet on the beach, conservationist, beachgoer, whatever. And try to educate the public that, yes, when we're flying over the water it seems crazy, but we want to cherish and protect the beaches and the surroundings as much as they do.

Guys,

We have an ally for kiters that also protects these things for 3 local beaches within the Boston area.....and she logs on this website from time to time to read what's going on. Let's not burn our bridges.