It’s official. Plover Park’s very own Chunks has fledged two chicks up at Island Beach. In case you missed it, the story of the summer was / has been the battle at Chunks’ nest with a very dangerous and annoying fox named Meatball. It would be an extreme understatement to say this was an experience I will never forget. This happened over a month ago, and even my body still physiologically remembers it. My circadian rhythm and metabolism still aren’t back to normal from the two weeks I spent yelling at Meatball through the camera in the middle of the night.
But it was all worth it. Chunks not only made it, but he fledged two Plover Park grandbabies. This is the next generation, and a perfect example of how this is supposed to work. We make babies, those babies go out into the world and make more babies, and soon there will be so many piping plovers we can go back to making ladies’ hats from their feathers and it won’t make any difference to the big picture whatsoever.
Since sharing the story of Chunks and Meatball in the Readings Making Island Beach unfun and Spirit of the Radio, I’ve been asked the same basic question, repeatedly, by a number of different people. Sometimes asked jokingly, sometimes sincerely, and sometimes even mockingly, the gist of the query is “why would you make so much effort for one bird? There is no way you can put this much effort in to help even just a few birds, let alone all of them. Why bother?”
The short answer is simple: because Chunks is adorable! I watched this bird hatch and take his first steps. I know his mom and dad. He needed my help and I was in a position to help him. How much of a jerk would I have to be to turn my back on him?
But the real answer is, just asking that question demonstrates a lack of understanding about progress and innovation. What we do is not nearly as important as what we learn while doing it.
And out of all of ridiculous hours of efforts and different crazy things we tried to help poor Chunks, a tiny gem rose from the rubble. The radio. Leaving a radio playing at the nest during the night is probably the easiest, simplest, and cheapest interventions ever. And, when used correctly in the right circumstances, it holds the promise to completely change the fate of a nest. While I’ve been using them successfully at oystercatcher nests in Plover Park, this was the first time they were used with piping plovers.
It will take a lot more trial to say anything with certainty, and there may be pitfalls lurking, but the lack of anything bad happening at Chunks’ hatch because of the radio has certainly opened the door to more trials.
In fact, just a few weeks later, right down the beach from Chunks, was another Plover Park alum, Zaddy, who also got pinned down at night at a nest surrounded by hungry fox. And so it was decided a radio should also be tried at Zaddy’s nest overnight.
Was it also successful? You tell me:
Almost unbelievably, there was actually a third nest, right down the beach from Chunks and Zaddy, that was also formed by yet another Plover Park alum The Mandolorian. Unfortunately, that nest got eaten by fox just as it was ready to hatch. That nest didn’t get the radio that the other ones had.
So in the northern natural area of Island Beach, we had three young Plover Park birds with new nests. Two got radios and hatched. One didn’t get a radio and didn’t hatch. It could be coincidence. Only time will tell.
But for now, we know the radios didn’t not help. And that right there makes it all worthwhile as I see it.
I wonder if I’ll ever get any sleep this year. Not because of how much staying up all night with Meatball threw me off… but because I’m so excited for the first time someone reports seeing Meatballsbane in the spring of 2027.
Long live Meatballsbane. And long live the radio!
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Fun Fact #1: Chunks fledged two, but Emily only banded one. Why? Because we tried to catch them on their fledge day, and one was already able to fly away from us! Godspeed little one. May the spirit of the radio travel with you, wherever you go.
Fun Fact #2: Chunks actually turned out to be kind-of a jerk. Soon after his sweet hatch, he started marching his chicks for miles, all over Island Beach, bullying every other piping plover family he could find. He has been a real menace.
Fun Fact #3: Chunks brought a lot of this trouble on himself. Emily & Kashi were following the nest very closely, but did not actually see it in person until right before hatch. They were shocked. Emily actually said “I’m sorry, but Chunks kind-of deserves everything he gets here. This is the dumbest, worst choice of a nesting site I think I’ve ever seen.” It was really bad. It was just too deep in the dune in a massive blowout riddled with danger.
Fun Fact #4: I posted a compilation video of the nest hatching with the radio blaring in the background, without context, as a “Today’s Readings” earlier this summer. I learned later that a lot of people didn’t understand and thought that I had made some kind of fake soundtrack over a video of the hatch. Nope! It is the actual radio playing at the nest, and these were the songs playing, captured on the camera’s audio as the sun rose on a new day.
Fun Fact #5: I could not be more proud of the partnerships formed between The Little Egg Foundation, NJFW, and organizations all over the world through NestStory. I’m especially proud that we get a chance to think outside the box and develop new techniques and strategies for solving common problems at nests, then work with a bunch of great people to bring them to life. But to hit on the right thing takes a lot of trial & error.
It took us years to get NestStory right so it would work for every species of bird, and every organization who needs to record data about them. You have to invest a lot of time and money to find, for example, the right radio that’s going to perform reliably on the beach through searing heat and vicious storms, and then to provide them to partners to try them out. These things wouldn’t happen without your support, so please keep us in mind the next time you want to donate to a cause that is making a real difference along the coast.
The Little Egg Foundation: Where we turn your money into birds! Thanks to everyone who supports this stuff. It’s working.
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