Red Rover, Red Rover, I Ran the Plover Over

Say “Piping Plover” on Shelter Island and you are guarenteed a strong reaction. The Shelter Island Reporter did a nice article on the Plover this week and it reminded me of all the hullabaloo several years ago over widening and strengthening of the narrow road, with water on both sides, that connects Ram Island to Shelter Island. The Piping Plover is an endangered species, so the Pro-Plover people didn’t want any work down that would disturb them or their environment. The Pro-Road people believed that it was really inconvenient for the road to wash away once in awhile and strand all the nice people on Ram Island until the Town could do a patch job.

I was pro-road. New species pop up and others die out every day on this planet and I couldn’t see any particular value to the Plover except that they’re cute, if you can see them, which you can’t because they’re very shy, very small, and blend into the sandy beach too well. I’ve only seen them in pictures.

At first I thought Piping Plover was an edible bird, delicious piping hot, hence their name. But they are the size of a sparrow. You could stuff one, maybe two, croutons in them - not worth the effort. Then someone told me, no, they aren’t edible. I thought maybe they had a unique and beautiful song, like a Robin, but no one I know has ever heard it, so they aren’t known for their song.

Maybe they had a unique nest, like our Osprey. I love looking at the crazy Osprey nests and trying to figure out how they balance a giant stack of big sticks on the platforms we build for them. Everytime one of them comes in for a landing, I swear they’re going to push the whole nest off the platform. I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the big sticks acts like a tail hook on an aircraft carrier to stop the plane from going off the deck. There must be one stick that hooks onto a foot - I hope its a foot for the birds sake, and stops them.

But no, the Plover nests aren’t unique. They’re well hidden along the gravelly scrub. They produce tiny eggs I imagine, probably the size of a jelly bean, marble size for twins. Would take about thirty to make an omlette, so no food source there.

So, Piping Plover aren’t edible, don’t make unique nests, don’t have a fancy song, they just cute. Fortunately for them, cute is enough on the Island. After a long drawn out battle, a compromise was reached that protected the Plover and built a sturdier road for the people on Ram Island. And I have to say I admire the Ram Islanders. If I lived on Ram Island during that time and someone told me I had to struggle with road washouts because of a tiny bird, I would have organized hunting parties to purge the Piping Plover.