Jersey Cape NATURALLY

Mowing in the breeze, lost was a piping plover 'ing through the sparse ition. All of a sudden

By Farris Swackhamer As I walked along the

water’s edge down on Stone Harbor Point, a wisp of motion caught the corner of mv eye. I turned my head and searched the strip of sand, well above

the high tide mark mid vestiges of dune grass. Nothing alive seemed to be there. Then I spotted a

ghostlike movement as if sand were blowing in the breeze.

The ghost < scurrying I

vegetation

there were three. When they paused to scan the dunes for

intruders, their pale sand tones blended into the background so completely

they seemed to disappear like the astronauts in Star Trek.

Audubon was familiar with

the piping plover as a common summer resident on the sandy beaches of the Atlantic coast. During the years between his time and the turn of the cen-

tury when federal law prohibited the taking of these

dainty birds, their numbers were decimated by spring and autumn shooting. Fisherman

often gathered their eggs

which were highly prized for

omelets.

The piping plover has ac-

by Paul Stewart quired a number of names, each differing with the geographical location of the namer. Some call it simply a beach bird, others a butter bird — no doubt after its flesh when cooked. Clam bird, mourning bird Ad feeble are three others. The call of the beach lover gave rise to still another — peep-lo. Few of the piping plover’s family live beyond their first year, but if they survive that ordeal, their store of experience grows and chances become increasingly better. In North America, a banded piping plover became the longest lived wild shorebird when it passed the 14 year mark before it went on to the great beach in the sky.

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CAPE COUNTY MAGAZINE/I I