`Parenting is no joke for our local western snowy plovers. First there’s finding real estate on the San Francisco Bay—somewhere salty, flat, and undisturbed in which to dig a slight scrape for a clutch of two to six inch-long eggs. Development, introduced beachgrass, and other human disturbance make likely spots scarce.` `Last year, researchers counted a record 383 fledged adult birds in the San Francisco Bay—a long way from the low of 72 birds documented in 2003, and about three-quarters of the way to the 500 adults needed for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to declare the population recovered.` https://baynature.org/2026/05/06/conservation/restoring-salt-ponds-to-marshes-is-a-win-unless-youre-a-snowy-plover/