MAINE PUBLIC • August 23, 2022
Wildlife groups in Maine are reporting a record number of piping plovers nesting in Maine's beaches this summer. The shorebirds were listed as endangered in the 1980s, as predators and habitat loss threatened the population, which fell to fewer than a dozen nesting pairs. But Laura Zitske, a wildlife biologist at Maine Audubon, said that this summer, 140 nesting pairs of plovers raised 252 chicks to the point where they could fly this summer — both records. "It's pretty incredible. It's number that...those of us that have been monitoring these birds for a long time still have a hard time wrapping our heads around it, some times," Zitske said.