Delaware
On the front lines of protecting Delaware’s nesting piping plovers
The piping plover is still endangered on Delaware’s beaches, but it is holding steady in the First State.
The birds could always use extra protection, though. A group of volunteers went to the Officers Club at Cape Henlopen State Park on May 2 to learn how they will help keep the birds’ sensitive habitat free from human disturbance. Signs, chains and posts close off The Point, a sandy peninsula that spits out to the Delaware Bay. Piping plovers nest there and need that exact habitat to emerge from their endangered status.
The volunteers will station at those posts to let people know they can’t go through to The Point. If the visitors do, law enforcement might be contacted. Human disturbance, trash and development are some of the most pressing threats to nesting shorebirds on the Atlantic coast, including the piping plover.
The plovers nest on sandy beaches with limited vegetation.
There are more threats to the birds besides humans. Red foxes, dogs, cats and bigger birds like seagulls and crows can harm them. Ongoing sea-level rise doesn’t help either.
“Less beach means less space for them to go,” said Shawn Sullivan in a presentation to volunteers, beach-nesting bird biologist with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control’s Fish and Wildlife Division.
The piping plover is a small shorebird with a gray back and a distinct black “eyebrow” above its eyes and beak. The birds can be found from Canada through the Mid-Atlantic in the summer months, including here in Cape Henlopen State Park. They usually arrive around March, and fledging birds are usually migrating south in August and September. Plovers have a incubation period of about 25-28 days in their eggs.
Adults grow to about 7 inches, so the chicks are tiny.
“The payoff is the fuzzballs you get,” Sullivan said about the chicks.
Plover populations in Delaware are concentrated at The Point and at Fowler Beach near Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge. In 2025, there were nine pairs of plovers at Cape Henlopen, 21 pairs at Fowler Beach and 30 chicks, 27 of which fledged. That’s more pairs than in 2024, but 10 fewer fledging chicks than in 2024.
Protecting the piping plover
The regional goal for the piping plover population is to get 2,000 pairs of plovers and 1.5 chicks per pair for five straight years. Delaware has an advantage in plover protection that other states don’t, Sullivan said.
The ability to close the Point and Fowler Beach completely from March through the fall helps the birds, Sullivan said, and other states don’t have large beach habitats closed like that. The creation of Fowler Beach is a “saving grace,” Sullivan said, because the Cape Henlopen population is small, but steady.
The bayside of The Point is closed until October, and the ocean side is closed until September.
Nests are surrounded with fences and netting so only the plovers can get in or out, which Sullivan said works. It protects from foxes, coyotes, larger birds and more.
Sullivan said Southern states, New York and New Jersey are struggling with piping plover population maintenance, and New England states like Massachusetts are faring much better.
Sullivan said the birds receive color-coded bands when they hatch so the population can be tracked. Eight adults and 63 chicks have been banded. If you see a piping plover with a colored band around its leg, let the state know at deshorebirds@delaware.gov so they can keep a track of the population.
How to help piping plovers
Volunteers will be stationed at the rope that is closing The Point off from the Cape Henlopen State Park bay and ocean beaches. Do not walk past that rope, and listen to the volunteers.
Most of the volunteers are older in age, which is representative of the area’s population. But some younger people showed up to the May 2 meeting to learn about how they can keep The Point pristine. Kathryn Lienhard, a 27-year-old from Lewes, said she is volunteering because she cares about shorebirds and their habitat and wants to support them. Seeing a few of the birds would be cool, too.
“We all share in the benefits of our natural resources. It’s up to all of us, including young people, to take care of them,” she said.
If interested, fill out the form that more than 100 people already signed at DNREC’s website. They are looking for volunteers who can stay out there in a beach chair during peak daytime hours, weekends and holidays.
Shane Brennan covers Wilmington and other Delaware issues. Reach out with ideas, tips or feedback at slbrennan@delawareonline.com.