6 min read.
By Julie Prentice and Sydney Shepherd, Ontario Piping Plover Conservation Program
Bird conservation takes many different forms. This is the first blog in a new series, where we give you a special look behind the scenes at how the work is done in the field.
In the summer of 2025, there were only **4 **successful Piping Plover nests on Ontario’s Great Lakes. With a population this size, every tiny nest is a very big deal. The Ontario Piping Plover Conservation Program, led by Birds Canada, works year-round to give these birds the best shot at raising their families successfully. Protecting them takes more than putting up fencing or chatting with beach users. It takes collaboration, science, strategy, and a whole lot of time spent in the sun and sand!
At first gl…
6 min read.
By Julie Prentice and Sydney Shepherd, Ontario Piping Plover Conservation Program
Bird conservation takes many different forms. This is the first blog in a new series, where we give you a special look behind the scenes at how the work is done in the field.
In the summer of 2025, there were only **4 **successful Piping Plover nests on Ontario’s Great Lakes. With a population this size, every tiny nest is a very big deal. The Ontario Piping Plover Conservation Program, led by Birds Canada, works year-round to give these birds the best shot at raising their families successfully. Protecting them takes more than putting up fencing or chatting with beach users. It takes collaboration, science, strategy, and a whole lot of time spent in the sun and sand!
At first glance, it might look like our work is all beach walks and bird-watching. But, Piping Plovers are only in Ontario for about 3-4 months of the year, and those fleeting days in the sand are backed by months of preparation and informed by years of research, experience, and relationship building.
Birds Canada staff and partner organizations like the Canadian Wildlife Service and Ontario Parks, combine on-the-ground effort with research-backed strategies to make sure every Piping Plover adult, egg, and chick has the best chance of survival. Each winter, the program meets with local and international partners to share the previous season’s data, analyze long-term trends, brush up on new research, and update our protocols and strategies. We also meet with government partners to understand legislative changes, update our permits, explore funding opportunities, and more. Our field seasons can be quite unpredictable, so an important winter task is auditing our supplies to ensure we have enough to protect every nest without delay. By the time the spring arrives, we are ready for action!
Our team conducts public outreach year-round, and winter is the perfect time for booking events and planning social media campaigns. Piping Plovers are so rare that most people in Ontario have never heard of them, and you can’t protect what you don’t know. Support from the public is imperative to improve nesting outcomes, as there are numerous threats on beaches that can be influenced by changes in human behaviour. Outreach is also an opportunity for volunteer recruitment, which becomes very important during the nesting season!