The Largest Plover in North America Visits Sandy Hook Bay

Many animals are now on the move. The frenetic rush of spring and the need to breed  compels lots of animals to move, migrate and generally become restless. Can you feel it, there is a rush to create new life. Scores of birds, butterflies, fish, and other critters are travelling routes and repeating mating rituals that in many cases began long before the first people arrived to the estuary thousands of years ago.

This week saw flocks of migrating Glossy Ibises flying northward to nest in New York Harbor, the return of Common and Least Terns to nest along local coastal beaches, and  the emergence of swallowtails and American Lady butterflies fluttering around and foraging for food. Of course, lots of local fisherman will tell you the spring bass fishing season has generally been good with many large Striped Bass swimming upstream to spawn in the Hudson River. Adult Bluefish are also starting to enter Lower New York Bay to generate their own generation of offspring. A busy time of the year indeed.

Yet, with all this activity taking place, the one animal that caught my eye was a lone black and white bird. A single bird resting by a small pool of water near North Beach at Sandy Hook, part of Gateway National Recreation Area in New York Harbor.

It was a beautiful Black-Bellied Plover. A stocky plover with short legs, a short bill, and a short neck. Its colors were stunning with black and white feathers and a little brown on its back.  It had a deep black color from face to belly with a large white rump. Feathers were vividly barred brown on the back. A standout among the plain colors of an early May beach.

It was a bird that couldn’t be missed. With a height of about 11.5 inches, the Black-bellied Plover is the largest plover in North America.

Although Black-bellied Plovers will over-winter along the coast of New York and New Jersey, their splendid black and white plumage is gone and replaced with a plain assortment of feathers.  When spring arrives, lots of Black-bellied Plovers will fly off in a hurry to find a good nesting site in the high Arctic lowlands of the tundra. The birds are picky and prefer to nest and raise a family on dry open ground atop hills or ridges.

What a sight. Rarely do I get to see a Black-bellied Plover in breeding plumage in New York Harbor, including Sandy Hook Bay. So I took as many pictures as I could. Not an easy task since the bird is shy and cautious of larger animals getting too close. A good trait for any wild animal to have, but this meant I had to be silent and still.

Yet something was wrong. This bird acted weary and worn-out. It wasn’t foraging for food, such as worm or clams, instead it was not doing much of anything. It was just staying in one place, voiceless and motionless.  

Sometimes the plover would occasionally stand on one leg. Not very exciting, but it did look very Zen-like, as if it was meditating. This action was most likely making it easier for the bird to save energy and keep warm. Since a bird’s legs are often not covered with feathers, this part of the body will lose heat quickly compared to the rest of the body when temperatures are chilly. A bird’s metabolism will often drop when resting as a way to save energy with less heat going to its feet. So birds will sometimes tuck one leg under its feathers to keep warm and save energy.

This plover was exhausted and trying to save energy, probably after flying a long distance. Perhaps as far away as the West Indies or South America. En route to the high Arctic, but stopping here in Sandy Hook Bay to rest and hopefully refuel along miles of mudflats and sandy beaches.

Migration is never easy for a shorebird. They frequently fly day and night along the coast or over the ocean to navigate from one faraway place to meet up with a mate at another faraway place thousands of miles away nearly at the same time and same place every spring. It’s a true test of navigational skills, endurance, and staying power over harsh weather, little sleep, and often not enough food. Black-bellied Plovers are also very sensitive to disturbances compared to many other shorebirds and will often fly away when potential predators may be near. This doesn’t give the bird much time to sleep or take it easy.

So while it was a nice to see a Black-bellied Plover near Sandy Hook Bay, I didn’t spend too much time trying to get this bird to strike a pose even as I was taking its picture. I wished the poor bird luck and departed quickly! All of my knowledge of birds seemed so superficial and irrelevant. This Black-bellied Plover was just waiting for me to leave so it could have some breathing space. Something I could easily relate to living in the busy and bustling environment of the New York metropolitan region.

For more information, pictures and year-round sightings of wildlife in or near Sandy Hook Bay, Raritan Bay, and Lower New York Bay, please check out my blog entitled, Nature on the Edge of New York City at http://natureontheedgenyc.blogspot.com/