Factors Affecting Piping Plover (Charadrius Melodus) Parental Care Behavior and Hatching Success on Long Island, New York

Nesting Piping Plovers at Suffolk County Parks sites were exposed to a variety of threats in addition to nest destruction by predators or high tides. Hatching success (0.60 eggs hatch for each egg laid) was lower than historical reports for the region (0.91 eggs hatch for each egg laid). Hatchability however, was not lower than the baseline percentage reported for birds (91% of eggs hatch out of the eggs that are laid and are not destroyed). In other words, the frequency of mixed-fate nests (nests where at least one, but not all eggs hatch; i.e. partial clutch failure) was probably not a factor limiting hatching success in this population. On the contrary, mammalian predators, especially Red Foxes (Vulpes vulpes), were a primary factor responsible for nest abandonment where foxes were active and paced around nest exclosures. Completely failed plover nests had higher numbers of fox tracks near them prior to abandonment.