DNREC announces that beach nesting birds made some gains this season.
Piping plovers – a federally listed threatened and state listed endangered species – saw significant nesting success in Delaware this year.
"Definitely had an uptick this year,” said Shawn Sullivan is a beach nesting bird biologist with DNREC. “We had more productivity with our plovers. We had slightly less pairs, but that was the result of some owl predation at Fowler Beach last year kind of knocked down our adult numbers. So we were expecting that going in, but it was nice to see that we were fledging more chicks than we usually do with less pairs, so it was pretty exciting. In terms of least terns it kind of exploded this year. The fencing that we put up really successful."
Ten pairs of piping plovers were recorded nesting at the Point at Cape Henlopen State Park this season - a record high there since intensive monitoring started in 1989.
At Fowler Beach on Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, 15 nesting pairs were recorded, bringing the statewide total to 25 - down from 30 in 2025, but they produced 25 fledgling chicks this year compared to 27 last year.
While the total was down, the productivity – fledglings per breeding pair – was up to 1.08, just below the average productivity of 1.29 fledglings per pair since 2020.
For least terns – a Delaware state endangered species – they saw increases in both breeding population and productivity, increasing adult pairs from 127 last year to 208 this year, and an increase in fledges from 45 in 2025 to 138 this year.
Fencing was put up to protect least terns at both The Point at Cape Henlopen State Park and Fowler Beach at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge.
Sullivan says DNREC is pleased with the success of the fencing this year.
"It feels really good to know that you can go out and do on the ground management that is going to have direct effects and immediate effects. So a project like this, we're seeing returns immediately as opposed to when we do work that's more like habitat scale, which is going to take a lot longer to really show the positive effects," said Sullivan.
DNREC notes that American oystercatchers nested at several beaches – Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware Seashore State Park and Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge – with seven pairs monitored.
Five chicks hatched from three nests, and for the first time since 2019 DNREC staff observed the fledgling of an oystercatcher chick from a mainland beach.
