LEWES – Recent wet weather has not deterred beachnesting birds from beginning their nesting season at Cape Henlopen State Park – with this year’s first piping plover nest found late last week on the Point, along with an American oystercatcher nest also discovered there.

“We estimate that there are four or five pairs of plovers that have set up territories at Cape Henlopen State Park so far, which is right in line with the schedule the plovers have kept to in previous years,” said Wildlife Biologist Matthew Bailey of the Division of Fish & Wildlife’s Beachnester Monitoring Program. “One of our best tools for finding plover nests is following the birds’ tracks, which can lead a plover monitor to eggs nestled in a small dent in the sand. The current weather conditions have made the sand too wet for plovers to leave tracks, so there may be more nests out there still waiting to be discovered.”

With beach season coming soon, Bailey added that “Plover Patrol” volunteers are needed to help protect Delaware’s endangered piping plovers and other beachnesting birds. Anyone interested in joining DNREC’s beachnester monitoring team is invited to a training session from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 14, at Cape Henlopen State Park’s Biden Environmental Training Center, 15099 Cape Henlopen Drive, Lewes, DE 19958.

The training session will begin with a slideshow followed by a discussion on the monitoring program and how volunteers can help to ensure that beachnesting shorebirds are not disturbed while nesting and rearing their chicks. Weather permitting, the group will head out to the Point at Cape Henlopen to look for piping plovers and other shorebirds. Birding scopes and binoculars will be available for use, but volunteers are encouraged to bring their own optics if they have them.

Preregistration for the training is encouraged, but attendees also will be accepted at the door. Park entrance fees will be waived for volunteers attending the training by notifying the fee booth attendant. For more information on the training, beachnesting birds or monitoring efforts, please contact Matthew Bailey at 302-382-4151 or email matthew.bailey@delaware.gov.

About the piping plover
The piping plover was listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1986, and the Division of Fish and Wildlife is responsible for its protection in Delaware. Under a binding agreement and species management plan that DNREC made in 1990 with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) – the federal agency with oversight of this ESA-protected species – piping plover nesting areas at Cape Henlopen State Park are closed annually to the public to protect the shorebirds from disturbance during their nesting season from March into September. The closure, which includes the Point and smaller areas around Gordon’s Pond and with both feeding habitat and nesting areas protected, has been successful, increasing the number of piping plover nesting pairs from a low of two pairs to a high of nine pairs. Piping plovers feed on small invertebrates that inhabit the intertidal zone near their nesting territories. Chicks are not fed by their parents, but rather are led to the shoreline to forage while the adults keep watch for potential threats. Allowing pedestrian traffic in the intertidal zone adjoining nesting areas would disturb the vital link between nesting and foraging habitat and risk adverse stress or mortality to the chicks.

Media Contact: Joanna Wilson, DNREC Public Affairs, 302-739-9902

Vol. 46, No. 168

LEWES – Volunteers who want to help protect Delaware’s endangered piping plovers and other beachnesting birds by joining DNREC’s monitoring team are invited to a training session from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 14, at Cape Henlopen State Park’s Biden Environmental Training Center, 15099 Cape Henlopen Drive, Lewes, DE 19958.

“With the strong storms that hit Delaware’s beaches over the winter, a lot of new habitat for beachnesting birds has opened up. It will be more important than ever that we have volunteer assistance in protecting their nesting habitat so that they can take full advantage of this opportunity to further increase their populations,” said Wildlife Biologist Matthew Bailey of the Division of Fish & Wildlife’s Beachnester Monitoring Program.

The training session will begin with a slideshow followed by a discussion on the monitoring program and how volunteers can help to ensure that beachnesting shorebirds are not disturbed while rearing their chicks.

Weather permitting, the group will finish the session by venturing out to the Point at Cape Henlopen to look for piping plovers and other shorebirds likely to be feeding on the tidal flats. Birding scopes and binoculars will be available for use, but volunteers are encouraged to bring their own optics if they have them.

“Volunteers are critical to our protection efforts. When stationed at the boundaries of the nesting areas, volunteers can help explain facts to passersby about the breeding birds and the importance of keeping closed areas free of human disturbance,” Bailey said. “Without volunteers to supplement the coverage our staff provides, many people might never have the chance to better understand how humans can make a difference in the breeding success of beachnesting birds.”

Preregistration for the training is encouraged, but attendees also will be accepted at the door. Park entrance fees will be waived for volunteers attending the training by notifying the fee booth attendant. For more information on the training, beachnesting birds or monitoring efforts, please contact Matthew Bailey at 302-382-4151 or email matthew.bailey@delaware.gov.

About the piping plover
The piping plover was listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1986, and the Division of Fish and Wildlife is responsible for its protection in Delaware. Under a binding agreement and species management plan that DNREC made in 1990 with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) – the federal agency with oversight of this ESA-protected species – piping plover nesting areas at Cape Henlopen State Park are closed annually to the public to protect the shorebirds from disturbance during their nesting season from March into September. The closure, which includes the Point and smaller areas around Gordon’s Pond and with both feeding habitat and nesting areas protected, has been successful, increasing the number of piping plover nesting pairs from a low of two pairs to a high of nine pairs. Piping plovers feed on small invertebrates that inhabit the intertidal zone near their nesting territories. Chicks are not fed by their parents, but rather are led to the shoreline to forage while the adults keep watch for potential threats. Allowing pedestrian traffic in the intertidal zone adjoining nesting areas would disturb the vital link between nesting and foraging habitat and risk adverse stress or mortality to the chicks.

Media Contact: Joanna Wilson, DNREC Public Affairs, 302-739-9902

Vol. 46, No. 160

LEWES – The Point at Cape Henlopen State Park, including a stretch of ocean beach and dunes, and a half mile along the bay shoreline, will close beginning Sunday, March 1, for the benefit of threatened and endangered beachnesters and migratory shorebirds, including red knot, piping plovers, oystercatchers, least terns and other species.

The nesting habitat on the ocean side will reopen on Sept. 1. The bayside beach will remain closed until Oct. 1 for use by shorebirds migrating south for the winter.

DNREC’s Divisions of Parks and Recreation, Fish & Wildlife and Watershed Stewardship have been working together since 1990 to implement a management plan to halt the decline of beachnester and migratory shorebird populations. The Point has been closed annually since 1993.

“We appreciate the public’s cooperation in this effort,” said Park Superintendent Paul Faircloth. “DNREC is committed to providing protection for these species, hopefully to prevent them from disappearing in Delaware.”

For more information, contact Cape Henlopen State Park at 302-645-8983.

Media Contact: Elizabeth Shockley, DNREC Public Affairs, 302-739-9902

Vol. 45, No. 36

DOVER, Del. – On Wednesday, April 2, Lt. Governor Denn will celebrate wonderful achievements at Rehoboth and Milton Elementary Schools. Cape Henlopen School District received $57,623.20 through the Accelerated Academic Education Grants that were given late last year, and the Lt. Governor will visit two of the schools that are already using the funding on programs.
The Accelerated Academic Grant program, a new state program that made funds available for programs targeted at academically advanced students, was created through legislation proposed by Lieutenant Governor Matt Denn and the chairs of the General Assembly’s education committees, allowing school districts to design programs targeted at students who are ahead of grade level in reading, writing, math, or science.

Cape Henlopen School District is implementing a progressive, rigorous approach in accelerated education through STEAM enriched instruction. The program will include 60 identified 5th grade students from four elementary schools and will inspire creativity, innovation and integrative problem solving above and beyond the curriculum. The Lt. Governor, in visiting Rehoboth and Milton Elementary Schools, will see those children and programs in action. Shields and H.O. Brittingham will also fully participate beginning this fall.

At Rehoboth Elementary, the Lt. Governor will actually start his visit celebrating with Principal Trish Mumford, staff, students, and parents that RES is a School of Continued Excellence, as recognized by the Lt. Governor and Sec. Murphy in October 2013. Lt. Governor Denn will hand out awards to staff and students, celebrating their continued success. Additionally, Rehoboth has invited all of the fourth and fifth grade students whose scores and progress as third and fourth graders earned RES the designation. The staff will each receive a small etched crystal award with “Rehoboth Elementary, DOE School of Continued Excellence 2013.” The students will each get a metal for “Academic Excellence.”

After the award ceremony, Lt. Governor Denn will visit the fifth grade STEAM groups at Rehoboth and then again at Milton Elementary School to see them in action. They use time set aside for Response to Intervention (RTI) so that they do not miss any of the core curricular instruction. At RES, the Lt. Governor will see the students discussing and creating hypothesis around pollution, paper recycling, and water filtration.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

10:30am – 12:00pm Visit to Rehoboth Elementary School
500 Stockley Street
Rehoboth Beach
Award Ceremony 10:30 – 11:15
STEAM Visit 11:15 – 12:00

1:00pm – 2:00pm Visit to Milton Elementary School
512 Federal Street
Milton

DOVER (March 26, 2013) – DNREC’s Division of Parks and Recreation will host a public open house for the proposed Gordons Pond Trail in Cape Henlopen State Park. The Open House will be held from 4 p.m. through 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 3 at the Lewes Library, Second Floor Meeting Room, 111 Adams Avenue in Lewes.

This project is part of Governor Jack Markell’s Statewide Trails and Pathways Initiative. The proposed trail will provide a key link in a 15.5-mile regional trail system through Lewes and Rehoboth including the existing Junction and Breakwater Trail.

The proposed trail will extend from the wildlife observation platform at Gordons Pond Area to the Walking Dune Trail near Herring Point in Cape Henlopen State Park. Approximately two miles long, the new trail will improve and reroute an existing primitive trail. The proposed trail will consist of a .4 mile elevated segment and 1.5 mile trail with a crushed stone surface.

More trails for walking, hiking, biking, and jogging rank consistently as the highest outdoor recreation need identified by Delawareans throughout the state. In addition, trail networks promote healthy lifestyles and take cars off the road, reducing air pollution and traffic. The Gordons Pond Trail will offer an excellent opportunity for young Delawareans to be outdoors to experience and learn about nature.

Visitors at the Open House can view the Gordons Pond Trail Plan and related information including exhibits, maps, and trail alignments, models of a bridge/boardwalk, trail tread cross sections, and decking material.

For more information on the Gordons Pond Trail Open House, contact Susan Moerschel, Planning Chief, DNREC Park Resource Office, 302-739-9240 or susan.moerschel@delaware.gov.

Contact: Beth Shockley, DNREC Public Affairs, 302-739-9902

Vol. 43, No.108

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