The Delaware Department of Natural Resources is reporting a record number of successful of piping plover breeding pairs in Delaware this past summer.

According to a press release from the Division of Fish and Wildlife, 16 breeding pairs produced 36 fledglings. The release said four pairs of piping plovers nested at the Point in Cape Henlopen State Park and 12 pairs nested at Fowler Beach in Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge. The Fowler Beach site was first used by nesting piping plovers in 2016 following a habitat restoration project.

The piping plover is a federally-listed threatened species and a state-listed endangered species in Delaware.

For the second year in a row, piping plovers did not nest at Gordons Pond within Cape Henlopen State Park. The reason, said the release, could be the combined factors of encroaching vegetation limiting sandy nesting habitat and the availability of more attractive nesting habitat at Fowler Beach.

In other beachnesting bird news, one pair of American oystercatchers successfully hatched and fledged a single chick at the Point at Cape Henlopen State Park. Additionally, and for the first time since the state began monitoring least tern nesting in 2006, no least terns were found nesting at Cape Henlopen State Park this year.

Fish and Wildlife’s Audrey DeRose-Wilson said she thinks the least terns moved to more favorable habit at Fowler Beach, New Jersey or Maryland. She said that species of bird is not site-faithful and will move between, and within, years if somewhere else looks better.

For additional information on piping plovers or other beachnesting birds, please call DeRose-Wilson with the Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Species Conservation and Research Program at 302-735-3600.