OGUNQUIT (NEWS CENTER Maine) -- Lifeguards watch out for swimmers at the beach. But who watches out for plovers? The answer is "you."
The Atlantic Coast Piping Plovers are found on the sandy beaches of southern Maine during summer months. With their numbers depleted from loss of habitat, they are listed as threatened at the federal level and endangered at the state level. Nesting season is their most vulnerable time.
"Once we started paying attention, their population was already decimated," said Laura Minich Zitske with the Maine Audubon. She works to enlist volunteers to help monitor the health of Maine's plover population.
Out of the 130 plovers estimated to live in Maine during the summer, most call Ogunquit home. In 2017, 101 of them were counted there including 26 fledglings. Minich Zitske attributes their success in Ogunquit to an ideal beach environment and watchful community members like Bobby Morse.
"The community knows about the plovers," Morse said. "If you go to the post office, you know people, 'Oh, there's the plover guy!' They're educated, and they care about the plovers."
For beachgoers, Minich Zitske has a few requests. She says keep dogs off the beach during nesting season between May and mid July. Don't leave behind food or trash, which could attract predators. And if you see someone disturbing the birds or a nest, you can report it to animal control, Maine Audubon, or a game warden.