Productive Piping Plover Year for Delaware

TOD Archive: Plover nest

It was a good nesting season for piping plovers in Delaware. Ten pairs were recorded nesting at The Point at Cape Henlopen – a record high for that site since monitoring began in 1989. 15 pairs were documented this year at Fowler Beach on Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge for a total of 25 nesting pairs – down from 30 pairs in 2025. 25 chicks were raised to fledging or flying age. Piping plovers are federally-listed as threatened and state-listed endangered species and face ever-present threats from red fox, coyotes, ghost crabs and other predators as well as from weather conditions – like severe storms, heat waves and drought.

Least terns – 10 colonies at The Point at Cape Henlopen State Park and Fowler Beach. New predator fencing at both locations protected nesting areas. Adult pairs increased from 127 to 208. Fledges increased from 45 in 2025 to 138 in 2026

American Oystercatchers – 7 pairs monitored at Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware Seashore State Park and Prime Hook – 5 chicks hatched from 3 nests.  

Additional information from DNREC:

Plover productivity – calculated as fledglings per breeding pair – was 1.08 in 2026, just below the average productivity since 2020 of 1.29 fledglings per pair.

Working towards piping plover recovery in Delaware and along the East Coast involves partnerships between DNREC’s Division of Fish and Wildlife and Division of Parks and Recreation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services.

Meanwhile, the increased least tern presence attracted a pair of common terns to the colony at Cape Henlopen State Park, the species’ first nest in the park since the 1990s. Moving forward, DNREC beach-nesting bird staff will attempt to attract common tern and black skimmer to the protected nesting areas at Cape Henlopen.

Moving forward, DNREC beach-nesting bird staff will attempt to attract common tern and black skimmer to the protected nesting areas at Cape Henlopen.

For the first time since 2019, DNREC staff also observed the fledging of an oystercatcher chick from a mainland beach. Predation plays a large role in the lack of productivity of beach nesting oystercatchers – with pairs in the Inland Bays typically producing more fledges than pairs on mainland beaches due to decreased mammalian predation.

 For more detailed information on the 2026 season and the ongoing beach-nesting bird projects, visit DNREC’s Beach-Nesting Bird webpage or email deshorebirds@delaware.gov.