The small Piping Plover is unique to North America, not traveling past the Gulf Coast in winter according to the Audubon Society. Its conservation status is listed as threatened or endangered and it now rarely breeds in the Great Lakes region. The open, sandy tidal flats they choose as breeding areas are affected by human intervention and flooding. We noted that vast stretches of the few Atlantic beaches we were able to access in and around Plymouth, Massachussetts last week were closed, roped off, to protect the nesting areas of these tiny, adorable shorebirds. Something seems to have caught the attention of the young Piping Plover above as it stops, mid stride to look and listen.