Katie Barnes
A nest of Wilson's plover chicks, photographed in May 2022 on the Cameron Parish coastline
Throughout the early spring, an unassuming little shorebird flitted around the Cameron Parish coastline, eventually settling into a little scrape out of the sand and broken shells—where she laid her eggs. Under the guardianship of the folks at the Audubon Delta Coastal Bird Beach-Nesting Stewardship Program, the eggs were safely monitored and protected from their many predators: beach-goers, coyotes, ghost crabs. Their numbers joined the important research being done by the scientists of the program, documenting nesting patterns, success rates, and even new species making a home on our coast, such as the snowy plover and the black skimmer.
On May 16, just four days before we sent this issue to press, Katie Barnes, the Louisiana Coastal Stewardship Manager at Audubon Delta, raced down to the coast to welcome the Wilson’s plover chicks that now grace the cover of Country Roads’ 2022 “Our Natural World” issue. Nestled between stories of successful coastal restoration projects, old forests being replanted, and native habitats returning to residential neighborhoods—these tiny birds exemplify the impact of responsible human stewardship in our rapidly-changing world.
Editor's Note: Readers of our print edition might notice that in our "On the Cover" section, we incorrectly identify our cover subjects as the rare Snowy plovers—a mistake we recognized only after the issue was being cheerfully printed away. Read about both shorebirds, and the work being done to protect them, in our story by Managing Editor Jordan LaHaye-Fontenot, "Living on the Edge".
