Piping Plover

The rare and delightful Piping Plover! I love these birds. They’re adorable and the way that they and similar birds move across the beach is such a delight! We were very, very lucky with this particular sighting! Most of these photos are all of the same bird. We spotted it near a flock of sanderlings out on the beach and, seeing that some joggers were coming towards the group, we settled in to see if it would run our way. Unfortunately, it flew off towards the dunes instead. We followed at a distance—you can’t approach that section of the dunes because it’s a protected area (for Plovers!) and we were hoping to see it among the grass…

But it actually came out of the protected area to look at us! One of the photos shows it near a pole, which is the border of the restricted area. It waddled on out past that part, had a sit down, and gave us a look over for a solid few minutes. Afterwords, we talked it over and we think it may have been trying to lead us away from the nesting area and then got confused and/or curious when we were content to just sit there and watch it in return! After the few minutes passed it fluttered on into the dune grass and away we went!

There are believed to be only under 10,000 of these adorable guys left in the world, which is very tragic. There are considerable conservation efforts across their range which are proving somewhat successful. If you happen to live near one, please do what you can to support these efforts by following all signs and guidance (do not traverse dunes or nesting sites, do not bring pets anywhere near these areas and if you do have them nearby but on the outside, please please please keep them on leashes) or financially! These adorable birds deserve to remain among us!
Wikipedia
Audubon