News report: Piping Plover numbers at Milford Point are “inching up” over the years
A Piping Plover chick at Milford Point. There are as many as 40 Piping Plovers there this summer. CT Audubon photo.
July 21, 2025 — The continued success of federally-threatened Piping Plovers at Milford Point and elsewhere in Connecticut is good news for conservation. The thriving flock at Milford Point in particular shows that when Connecticut Audubon members and supporters like you make donations, those funds are put to work doing what you want them to do — protect birds.
Read the latest in this news report from the Hearst CT papers over the weekend. It’s illustrated with beautiful Piping Plover photos.
Click here to read the news story.
Here are key takeaways and excerpts:
“The best guesses estimate no more than 9,000 piping plovers worldwide. Some populations, like those at Milford Point, have been inching up. There are about 40 birds, including nesting pairs and their progeny, on the beach in Milford.”
“There were 83 total nesting pairs plus 105 young fledges in the state last year,”
“The number of nesting pairs have increased year over year since 2019, when there were 57 nesting pairs and 98 fledglings,”
Two quotes from the story, from Matt Joyce and Johann Heupel, Connecticut Audubon’s field biologists:
“There will always need to be set aside places, fences, where people aren’t setting up beach towels and letting their dogs loose. The reason why their population got to such a terrible point, is partly because for a long time, there wasn’t that consideration taken and if they are left to their own devices, people tend to disrupt their nesting to a point where they’re not able to reproduce.”
An adult Piping Plover protects its baby. CT Audubon photo.
“If we get to a point where piping plovers are no longer considered threatened or endangered or no longer listed, there might be some argument that this is no longer necessary. I would love to see them thrive, but I also know that this type of work needs to continue on some level regardless, because otherwise their population would probably slip back down.”
Conservationists estimate that if Piping Plovers averaged 1.5 fledglings per nest throughout its range, it would be on a path towards removal from the threatened species list. At Milford Point, the number of fledglings per nest has been 33% better than that — close to 2 per nest — for the last three years.
That’s not an accident. It happened because of your generous support for conservation. Thank you!
