Coal Oil Point Reserve

In 2007 we continued with the management of the WSP population at Coal Oil Point Reserve as in previous year. We were not able to track chicks until fledged age as in previous years. I attribute this to the more complex beach profile that prevented a clear view of the beach and the large number of simultaneous broods that hatched in the beginning and again at the end of the breeding season. We experimented with replacing plover eggs with wood eggs and then returning the hatching egg to the plover nest. This was s successful way to improve hatchability during a high skunk predation time but it was very laborious.