Me: That’s the 11th nest of the season! A new record!
You: Wait, I thought you said it was the 9th nest?
Me: Well, 9/11… it depends on if we think it was an inside job.
I’m no stranger to storytelling, and I’m not shy about lighting a little fire under my penchant for drama. I believe that exaggeration and hyperbole are the everything-but-the-bagel seasoning of language. (Seriously, I swear on my grave, everything-but-the-bagel seasoning is the greatest thing in the history of the world, 110%!)
But, depending on the audience and whatever agenda I have cooking while speaking, I might say the new nest that just appeared in the park is either the 9th nest, or alternatively, the 11th. While that may sound like I’m fudging the numbers, it’s not a lie, there is no exaggeration, and it can barely even be considered a lie by omission.
Here’s the truth about 9/11:
Barnegat Light is considered one, single nesting site which spans 30th Street to the inlet. As the piping plover flies, it’s not even that big. So it’s not unusual to spot a banded bird on 20th street, then, by the time you get out to the inlet an hour later, to see the same bird. Once upon a time, the late, great Tufters even marched his newly-hatched chicks from 17th street to the inlet on foot!
So we count the nesting pairs for Barnegat Light as a whole, and by that measure, we’ve just hit a record number of 11 nesting pairs.
But Plover Park (the habitat restoration area in the park) is obviously something particularly special. So NJWF has started tracking nests for Plover Park and the rest of Barnegat Light as two, distinct sub-sites known as “Plover Park” and “The Front Beach” in NestStory.
By those measures, we’ve got 9 nests in Plover Park, and 2 on The Front Beach.
However you slice it though, 2026 is a huge record, by a wide margin. I’m mentioning this now because it’s finally time to split hairs over this issue; with one more nest in Plover Park, we are going to hit double digits. 10 nests would probably be the fulfillment of Todd Pover’s biggest hope when he built the park.
And we are within spitting distance of my goal, which is 12 nests. Because, ever since Plover Park was first built, I’ve initiated every season in NestStory by soon leaving a note that “Todd Pover promised me 12 pairs this season.” The humor in that was always how ridiculously unrealistic it seemed. Yet here we are.
So, 9/11… it all depends on if the new nest was an inside job. Inside Plover Park that is!
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Bonus trivia: Technically, we really should count the whole region as Plover Park. Because those two nests on the front beach are owned by Plover Park alum Jimin and Man. Always remember, the true measure of Plover Park’s success is in how many successful, breeding adults are created there, not necessarily by how many nests. These are the birds who will go on to grow the species back to a sustainable level where we won’t need to count so carefully anymore.
Say something kind