The parenting of a piping plover
To celebrate Mother’s Day this year, we’re on Jones Beach Island in New York, where piping plovers are helping their newly hatched chicks prepare to leave the nest—just hours after they hatch. While mom and dad were sitting on the unhatched eggs, if a predator, such as a fox, raccoon, or house cat were to get too close, they’d fake an injured wing and limp away from the nest to distract the animal. That’s some extra-mile parenting! Who knows if that little chick will remember to call mom this time next year…
Quick fact:
Piping plovers build nests by digging small depressions in loose sand above the high tide line. They'll often line the depression with small pebbles or bits of shell.
Quick fact:
Piping plovers build nests by digging small depressions in loose sand above the high tide line. They'll often line the depression with small pebbles or bits of shell.
