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Article: Birds on the beach: see Moss Landing's snowy plovers stage a comeback.(THINGS TO DO IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA)(Monterey County )(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Sunset
- Article date:
- May 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Sunset Publishing Corp. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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On a sunny day at Monterey County's Moss Landing State Beach, ranger Dave Dixon scans the sand and points toward the dunes. "There's one," he says. He's in search of Western snowy plovers--sparrow-size shorebirds with a sand-colored back, white belly, and jaunty dark patches on each cheek--which are nesting this month along the beaches of the Pacific Coast.
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Snowy plovers have "precocious" young, which means chicks leave the nest--a shallow depression in the sand--the same day they hatch, looking like puffy little dust bunnies. Tracking the hatchlings ...