To the Editor:
Dear plover lovers: I just got out my vintage plover poster to put in the Cape May Point post office for another season. I found one in perfect condition somewhere in my mess this winter.
The poster pictured above sat in many restaurants during its career, only to be kicked out due to customer complaints. Of course, I put it in places that could uplift people’s awareness of these vulnerable birds. But some people just don’t want to be uplifted. I think this has become a national crisis. But there is always hope.
Sadly, Miriam Leone, one of the leading protectors of the plovers, is now looking down on us from the sky. She set the standard of care in Cape May Meadows when she worked for The Nature Conservancy in the 80’s. She spent two summers in a tent, where she guarded the plovers and least terns. She got the support of all the locals that hung out at the Leone’s Sunset Beach grill. Ex-Navy seals who spent time there helped her with traps, wires and all kinds of gadgets to try to keep the weasels and other predators away from the nestlings. Those were the good old days.
Sadly, the beach grooming precedent that started in Avalon, has become the standard of care for beaches. There used to be many piping plovers on dune beaches in Avalon before beach grooming took effect. Hopefully, we can make Little Beach, one of the last uninhabited islands along the New Jersey coastline, a nationally designated shorebird-only Island.
BILL MAHER
Cape May Point
