Alice Van Zoeren has the best job in the world.
The veteran naturalist and researcher based in Leelanau County works with the Great Lakes Piping Plover Research and Recovery Project at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. She spends her summers watching and protecting the endangered birds as they return from southern migration to the beach, meet, mate, incubate eggs and raise chicks.
In addition to her other freelance work that includes teaching about birds, animal tracking and orienteering, Van Zoeren's piping plovers duties keep her busy and satisfied.
"I happen to feel really lucky to have my dream job watching piping plovers for the past four years,” said Van Zoeren, who teachers at both Northwestern Michigan College's Extended Education program and the Glen Lake Schools. "They are an endangered species and we are really lucky to have them in this area.”
Van Zoeren gave an hour-long presentation on the piping plover and her work during a meeting of the Grand Traverse Audubon Club. Held Thursday evening at Northwestern Michigan College's Great Lakes Campus building, the event drew 42 attendees. During her presentation, Van Zoeren showed slides from her summers of observing the birds. She also showed a few digital video snippets of bird behavior and plans to shoot more footage this summer.
The country has three distinct populations of piping plovers: Great Lakes, Atlantic and northern Great Plains. While the three populations may winter together in mud flats along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, they separate for the summer breeding season. The local piping plovers will return from their winter homes around the middle of next month.
The Great Lakes population is significantly smaller than the other two, which are labeled threatened instead of endangered. When the federal government designated the Great Lakes population as endangered in 1986 there were only 18 nesting pairs remaining. The protection efforts of their nesting grounds, from both predators and human interference, have boosted the numbers to 58 nesting pairs in 2005 an 53 in 2006.
"Our garbage attracts gulls and crows,” said Van Zoeren of human impact on the beach nesting areas. "We also bring animals to beaches and all areas in the Sleeping Bear Dunes that are piping plover nesting areas are posted off-limits and in other areas dogs have to be on a leash. But dogs have been known to catch adult piping plovers and the chicks are very easy to catch as they don't fly for awhile.”
Piping plovers depend on a combination of camouflage and movements that go from darting to standing perfectly still to throw off predators. Even their eggs, four per scrape nest, look like beach stones and experienced naturalists have to search to find them.
"Instead of flying away, they'll hunker down in a footprint or a small depression,” noted Van Zoeren of the plovers' method of outwitting predators. "Even the little ones, the chicks, just disappear.”
Piping plover parents, who mate for a season, both help incubate the eggs equally and if one parent dies the eggs will not survive. The parents also share brooding duties to keep chicks warm or shaded from the hot sun, as needed, and watch over the chicks as they grow to the fledgling stage. The mother eventually migrates south and the dad finishes watching over the babies until they, too, can wing to warmer climes.
Van Zoeren shared many anecdotes of birds she has watched for years, birds who have earned their names based on the unique combination of leg bands that allows watchers to track them location to location and season to season.
"I could tell you many stories of 'As the Plover World Turns,'” she said of her storehouse of bird behavior tales.
For more information on the Grand Traverse Audubon Club, see their Web site at www.grandtraverseaudubon.org or e-mail them at GTAC@grandtraverseaudubon.org. For more information about Van Zoeren, see her Web site at www.sandhillnature.com.