Snowy Plovers are a species of concern and deemed "near threatened," which means their numbers are decreasing and we humans are to blame...as usual. There is a section of Manchester State Beach that is off-limits to dogs because Snowy Plovers live there. Michele Melio recently photographed these birds, which were feeding on kelp flies.

Their calls are a short whistle which you can listen to at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's website: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Snowy_Plover/sounds There is a video showing the Snowy Plover making its nest in the sand, then making a couple of calls. You can see why dogs aren't allowed here, and people need to be very careful. Doug Forsell told me he actually makes depressions in the sand with his boots to help out these birds. Great idea!

Thanks to Michele for allowing me to share her photos with you here.

We had a pretty vigorous storms in the wee hours of Friday. .80 inches fell and the season to date total is 36.40, well in excess of the TOTAL season of last year. Today we have nothing but blue skies, temps in the mid-50s. It's startlingly beautiful!