A piping plover fledgling explores its newfound independence along The Point’s shoreline. Dozens of species of birds call this area home during the warmer months.
The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control will reopen a stretch of oceanside beach at The Point at Cape Henlopen State Park Sunday, September 1, 2024. The Point’s bayside beach will remain closed until October 1 for use by shorebirds migrating south for the winter.
The Point has closed annually since 1993 each March for the benefit of threatened and endangered beach-nesters and migratory shorebirds, including piping plovers, oystercatchers, least terns, red knots, and other species before reopening in the late summer-early fall for beachgoers and anglers.
The DNREC Divisions of Parks and Recreation, Fish and Wildlife, and Watershed Stewardship have worked together since 1990 to implement a management plan to increase beach-nester and migratory shorebird populations. Closing The Point to park visitors provides an area of undisturbed beach and intertidal habitat for a host of shorebirds, gulls, terns and other waterbirds to rest and feed after the breeding season, one of only three in the state.
During this year’s closure, eight piping plover chicks successfully fledged from nests at The Point. At least 11 least tern chicks hatched, but observers were unable to observe how many successfully fledged. While piping plovers nest in isolation and their nests can be enclosed with protective fencing, least terns are colonial nesters and individual nests cannot be enclosed to protect them from predators.
Thus far in 2024, 24 species of shorebirds, 10 species of terns including the federally threatened roseate tern, and seven species of gull are among the species observed at The Point.
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