Piping plover

Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site

The piping plover, known as Aldoqsanèj in the Mi'kmaw language, is an endangered shorebird that nests at Kejimkujik.

Behaviour

A piping plover on a sunny, sandy beach — An adult piping plover at Kejimkujik Seaside

The piping plover is a small, light-coloured shorebird with a single dark neckband.

This bird lays its eggs directly on the sand in a small nest that blends in almost seamlessly with the beach around it. On average, a nesting pair of piping plovers will lay three to four eggs per clutch.

Piping plovers nest throughout Atlantic Canada, including at Kejimkujik Seaside’s St. Catherines River Beach and Little Port Joli Beach.

To be suitable habitat for piping plovers, a site must have a supply of intertidal invertebrates (e.g. insects, worms and small crabs) for the birds to feed on. The birds also need large stretches of undisturbed sandy beach where they can nest.

Species at risk

The piping plover is listed as endangered under Canada’s Species At Risk Act (SARA).

Piping plovers are threatened by development and beach overcrowding by humans and dogs, as well as shoreline erosion.

Protection and management

Two Parks Canada employees walk a white-sand beach at Kejimkujik Seaside to look for piping plovers. — Parks Canada staff monitor piping plovers at Kejimkujik Seaside

Each summer, Parks Canada Resource Conservation staff monitor piping plovers as part of their work to assess the overall health of the ecosystem at Kejimkujik Seaside. Piping plovers are highly affected by changes in their environment.

St. Catherine’s River Beach and Little Port Joli Beach are closed to visitors from April to August each year to allow piping plovers the space they need to raise their young undisturbed.

Current closure notices at Kejimkujik Seaside