DNREC along with the Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists help rehabilitate a piping plover rescued in Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge.
The piping plover is federally-listed as a threatened species and as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need and endangered in Delaware.
The recently rehabbed plover known as Nomad is an adult male nesting at Fowler Beach in Prime Hook since 2024.
He was observed as unable to fly or walk on June 30, but relatively alert with no obvious injuries.
DNREC Coastal Waterbird Biologist Kat Christie explains what possibly happened.
"It seems like what had probably gone on was he'd been chased by a predator,” said Christie. “We're assuming it's an owl as an owl based on what we know about them, things that have gone on at that site this year, and with how exhausted he clearly got, he was probably being chased in flight by an owl, for an extended period of time to the point that it just caused like a stress reaction."
Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research in Newark cared for him, and he was in good condition within a week and ready to be released.
"It's a big deal to get an adult that could have died back into the population. These birds are super long-lived. They tend not to have extremely high breeding success within a single year. What we rely on is that over the long course of a bird's life that they are able to successfully reproduce a few times, and that's what keeps the population stable. So it's really important to protect these adults," said Christie.
He was taken to the Point at Cape Henlopen State Park in July. That is one of the two active piping plover breeding areas in the state, and has fewer incidents with predators.
Nomad has been observed acting like a normal healthy adult piping plover.
