Silver Sands, 3 fledges, 1 ad, Fletcher's Creek 6 Aug 10

Today, 6 August 2010, we arrived at Fletcher's Creek outlet in Silver Sands State Park in Milford CT and 3 young Piping Plover flew in and joined about 10 Semipalmated Plovers and a single pale adult Piping Plover. We think the trio are the Silver Sands chicks finally fully fledged--a great sight. Now all of the chicks from Milford Harbor to Milford Point have fledged. The adult with them is very pale and indistinctly marked. In fact it looks much like the adult we saw last night (5 Aug) at Milford Point. We do not think this bird is the trio's mother--it lacks her heavily orange-yellow at the bill base, for one thing. It's possible that the pale adult (and the Milford Point 5 Aug bird) is a nonbreeding bird making its way south on migration. Also note the deep coloration and bold markings of some of the Semipalmated Plovers--still in alternate plumage. In the first video, the first Piping Plover is the adult.