A nesting piping plover. (Nature Conservancy of Canada)

A successful program raising piping plover chicks from eggs may give new hope to an endangered species that makes its home on Maritime beaches.

Four piping plover eggs, found abandoned in Prince Edward Island National Park, were collected and taken to the Magnetic Hill Zoo, where they were successfully incubated. The chicks are scheduled to be returned to P.E.I. this week.

A large pen, 13 by 37 metres, has been constructed to protect the chicks from predators while they grow accustomed to the beach environment, and learn to fly and feed themselves. The young birds will be banded so they can be identified.

The pilot project is sponsored by Parks Canada. Parks Canada is involved in plover recovery projects throughout eastern Canada: in P.E.I., Kouchibouguac and Kejimkujik national parks.

Recent news about plovers in P.E.I. has not been good. The bird count this year was 64 birds, down from 87 last year. There was good news last year from Newfoundland. Piping plovers bred for the first time in almost 35 years in Gros Morne National Park.

If the chick-rearing pilot program is successful, then four piping plover chicks that would otherwise have been lost may have a chance at survival. The real test will come next year, if researchers can spot the birds back on P.E.I. following the winter migration.