KOUCHIBOUGUAC NATIONAL PARK, N.B. – Sarah Seaborn works in an area of Kouchibouguac National Park that few people get to see.
It’s where the endangered piping plover comes to nest.
“Being able to watch it from beginning to end is really something extraordinary,” she said. “Once we’ve found a nest we check on it regularly to make sure its incubating if its still there or in the worst case scenario if its been predated or flooded out,”
This year, four couples have nested in the park — about 114 kilometres north of Moncton.
“We’ve had four nests predated now,” Seaborn explained. “Three nests that have hatched and two that are still incubating. So, we’re still hopeful the other two will be hatched,”
She said the bird’s population has been dwindling for years.
“Because of human activity we’ve had increasing human activity we’ve had increasing populations of crows and foxes eating eggs or the chicks,” she said.
But, she hopes the park’s fence will give the plovers a fighting chance.
“We have set it up so the parents are able to incubate the eggs and care for their chicks during a very sensitive stage of chick rearing,” she said.
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