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The Carpinteria Snowy Plovers

2022 Nesting Season

Nest exclosure with pa:yb incubating three eggs
Adult female plover pa:yb
Unbanded adult male plover

Snowy plover pa:yb, the female bird that hatched from an egg rescued when a high tide washed out a number of nests at Devereaux Slough in July 2019, and attempted to nest at Carpinteria State Beach in the spring of 2020 only to have her own nest destroyed by a high tide, has returned and is attempting to nest again at Carpinteria State Beach. The nest was discovered by state park biologists on Monday, March 21, 2022. It is currently protected by an anti-predator exclosure and rope fencing.

If you visit the site, please give the plovers their space. Even when staying outside the rope fencing, it is possible to approach the nest so closely that the birds leave the nest. By standing a little further away it is possible to observe the plovers without forcing them off the nest.

More about this nesting attempt, and about subsequent events during the 2022 nesting season, can be found in the following blog posts:

  • The snowy plovers are back!
  • Snowy plover developments as of May 9, 2022

Update: In the Carpinteria Birdwatchers meeting on June 16, 2022, we covered all the nesting attempts so far this year. You can watch the video of that meeting or view the slides from it at the following link:

  • Snowy Plovers and Wrens: Carpinteria Birdwatchers meeting for June 16

Later update: Unfortunately the last two nests of the 2022 season, which were still being incubated at the time of our June 16 meeting, did not result in any successful fledging. Each nest hatched three chicks, but in each case the chicks were taken by predators (American crows, we suspect) within the first few days after hatching.

But there was one more piece of news, and this news was happier: We learned after the fact that one of the eggs rescued from an abandoned nest in Carp this year was successfully reared in the captive rearing program at the Santa Barbara Zoo. The bird was released at Coal Oil Point on August 8, 2022, and was seen again and photographed on August 19. Details in the following post:

  • Third snowy plover chick fledged from Carpinteria State Beach in 2022

2021 and 2020 Nesting Seasons

In May through July, 2021, Snowy Plovers nested successfully at Carpinteria State Beach. This was the first successful nesting at this location in 60 years, so a lot of us got pretty excited about it. State Park staff, lifeguards, and volunteers monitored the plovers’ progress and talked to beachgoers and campers about what was going on. I made a bunch of photos and videos, and gave some presentations via Zoom, about the event. This page links to some of those resources.

A lot more information on the Carpinteria Snowy Plovers is in the following blog post:

  • The Carpinteria Snowy Plovers: An Illustrated Timeline

In late May, shortly before Memorial Day weekend, we discussed the ongoing nesting attempt with Jessica Nielsen, conservation specialist with the Coal Oil Point Reserve, as part of our online Carpinteria Birdwatchers meeting. The video of that meeting is available here:

On November 17, 2021, I gave a Zoom presentation on the Carp Snowy Plovers to the members of Santa Barbara Audubon. You can watch the archive of that presentation here:

  • SB Audubon page: Program: The Carpinteria Snowy Plovers: A First Successful Nesting in 60 Years
  • The slides from that presentation: The Carpinteria Snowy Plovers

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