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Acrobatic pilot Sean D. Tucker, who is sponsored by Oracle, rehearses an entire routine for the Bethpage Air Show at Jones Beach on Friday, May 26, 2017. (Credit: Newsday / Jeffrey Basinger)
Note: On mobile devices, the 360-degree video experience can be viewed only in the YouTube app.
| Place | 2015 | 2016 | 2015-16 change | 2015-16 % change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nassau County | 1,359,702 | 1,361,500 | 1,798 | 0.13 |
| Glen Cove | 27,351 | 27,341 | -10 | -0.04 |
| Hempstead | 769,818 | 770,367 | 549 | 0.07 |
| Long Beach | 33,706 | 33,717 | 11 | 0.03 |
| North Hempstead | 230,333 | 231,114 | 781 | 0.34 |
| Oyster Bay | 298,494 | 298,961 | 467 | 0.16 |
| Suffolk County | 1,497,903 | 1,492,583 | -5,320 | -0.36 |
| Babylon | 212,984 | 212,137 | -847 | -0.40 |
| Brookhaven | 488,201 | 486,599 | -1,602 | -0.33 |
| East Hampton | 21,965 | 22,009 | 44 | 0.20 |
| Huntington | 204,077 | 203,236 | -841 | -0.41 |
| Islip | 335,249 | 333,758 | -1,491 | -0.44 |
| Riverhead | 33,714 | 33,637 | -77 | -0.23 |
| Shelter Island | 2,412 | 2,413 | 1 | 0.04 |
| Smithtown | 117,962 | 117,481 | -481 | -0.41 |
| Southampton | 58,108 | 58,119 | 11 | 0.02 |
| Southold | 22,202 | 22,165 | -37 | -0.17 |
| Poospatuck Reservation | 336 | 335 | -1 | -0.30 |
| Shinnecock Reservation | 693 | 694 | 1 | 0.14 |
Bay Shore | 7 UFC fights
One night in Las Vegas changed his life.
Not like the party capital’s nicknames and clever marketing would suggest.
For Pete “Drago” Sell, his “Sin City” rush came inside the UFC’s octagon on Feb. 5, 2005. That night at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, Sell, from Bay Shore, made his UFC debut against Phil Baroni from Massapequa.
“It was my shot,” Sell said recently inside his new home in West Islip.
That fight at UFC 51 was the first and only time in UFC history two fighters from Long Island faced one another inside the octagon. Sell, 22 years old and 5-0 at the time, had three weeks to prepare for Baroni, who originally was scheduled to fight Robbie Lawler. Baroni had lost three fights in a row but had a reputation for knockouts.
But it was Sell who won the fight with a submission via guillotine choke in the final minute of the fight.
“I became a believer,” Sell said about that night. “You gotta chase your dreams. Go for it. You live once. You got one ticket, go for it.”
He did just that for the next 10 years. He went 4-7 over that time span, with fights in the UFC and Ring of Combat. Sell wound up on the wrong side of several highlight-reel finishes, most notably against Scott Smith and Matt Brown. He last fought in September 2015 after three years off. Major knee surgery contributed to the long layoff.
“Where I’m at in life right now, obviously, for so many years I chased the fighting,” said Sell, now 34. “I loved it so much, it was the highest of the highs. And now I’m working my ass off.”
Sell works for Lifetime Chimney Supply, a steel chimney lining company based in Plainview. He does metal fabrication and custom metal work. It was something he did during his fighting career as a way to make money and have a career to fall back on after fighting.
But he’s not entirely out of the fight world. A black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu under Matt Serra, Sell continues to teach the sport at Serra’s academies in Levittown and Huntington as well as at Longo and Weidman MMA in Garden City.
“It’s nice being able to have that other means come in to make money besides fighting,” Sell said.
He has a family and a home to provide for now, with his girlfriend, Ashley, and their son, Jack.
“I love having the little guy,” Sell said. “It’s just fun. Holding pads for him a little bit, he’s throwing football, hitting baseballs, he’s 2 years old.” But . . .
“Honestly, what I really wish is that I could just be sitting, relaxed and fight for the rest of my life,” Sell said. “Obviously, there’s a life in fighting and I wish it didn’t end. Because fighting, there’s nothing better.”
Many professional athletes find it hard to walk away from their sport and stay away. Sell spent more than half of his life learning and practicing jiu-jitsu. He first began training with Serra at age 17.
Sell said he thinks about fighting again and believes he’ll compete again. When that may be, who knows?
“I know it’s a young man’s sport not only because of age and because of your body, but because of your time,” Sell said. “When you’re young, you’re 21, you got nothing to do. ‘You know what I’m doing today? I’m freakin’ training all day, I don’t care, I got nothing else to do. It’s the best.'”
He’s not 21 now. He has things to do. A job. A family. A mortgage.
“You want the best for your family,” Sell said of Ashley and Jack. “I want to be able to give them the world.”
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| PETE SELL’S UFC FIGHT HISTORY | |||
| Date | Event | Opponent | Result |
| Feb. 5, 2005 | UFC 51 | Phil Baroni | Won by submission, Round 3, 4:19 |
| Aug. 6, 2005 | UFC Fight Night 1 | Nate Quarry | Lost by KO, Round 1, 0:42 |
| Nov. 11, 2006 | Ultimate Finale 4 | Scott Smith | Lost by KO, Round 2, 3:25 |
| April 7, 2007 | UFC 69 | Thales Leites | Lost by unanimous decision |
| Sept. 19, 2007 | UFC Fight Night 11 | Nate Quarry | Lost by KO, Round 3, 0:44 |
| Oct. 25, 2008 | UFC 90 | Joshua Burkman | Won by unanimous decision |
| March 7, 2009 | UFC 96 | Matt Brown | Lost by KO, Round 1, 1:32 |
Democrat Christine Pellegrino defeated Conservative Tom Gargiulo Tuesday in a special election for the 9th Assembly District, which crosses the Nassau-Suffolk Border and which favored President Donald Trump in the presidential race last year. Here is an unofficial breakdown of the vote, by election districts, based on data from the Nassau and Suffolk boards of election. To see how the district and the rest of Long Island voted in 2016 and 2012, click here, and you can also read more about the Pellegrino-Gargiulo race here.
For a small piece of land assigned to a state that deemed mixed martial arts illegal from 1997 to 2016, Long Island has produced its fair share of professional fighters in the UFC.
No less than 18 fighters with Long Island roots — either where they grew up or where they settled in after college — have stepped inside the UFC’s octagon and competed in more than 125 fights.
Long Island’s presence in the UFC’s history goes far beyond an accent unique to this little part of the world. Matt Serra of East Meadow pulled off the biggest upset in the promotion’s history on April 7, 2007, when he knocked out Georges St-Pierre to win the welterweight title. Ten years later, it still shows up in all the Top 10 countdown shows and lists. Six years later, Baldwin’s Chris Weidman hoisted gold for Long Island once more, knocking out Anderson Silva to win the middleweight title.
As the UFC brings its first card to Long Island and Nassau Coliseum on Saturday, July 22, Newsday takes a look at the nine active fighters from here, including, in alphabetical order, Dennis Bermudez, Gregor Gillespie, Al Iaquinta, Brian Kelleher, Ryan LaFlare, Aljamain Sterling, Chris Wade, Chris Weidman and Gian Villante. Newsday also interviewed six former local fighters to see what they are doing now.
President Donald Trump’s proposal would balance the federal budget within 10 years, achieved through deep spending cuts and rosy predictions for economic growth and revenues.
And it’s getting an icy reception on Capitol Hill.
The proposal was harshly criticized by Democrats, and even some Republican allies rebuked it for politically unrealistic cuts to the social safety net and a broad swath of other domestic programs.
See how every department would be affected and what that would mean for its bottom line:
The proposed budget would limit subsidies to farmers, including a cut in government help for purchasing crop insurance. Crop insurance is overwhelmingly popular program with farm-state senators in both parties, and previous farm bills have only increased spending. The budget would also limit spending on environmentally-friendly conservation programs and some rural development dollars that help small towns build infrastructure.
Trump isn’t the first president to try to limit farm subsidies. Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush also proposed major reductions, but farm-state lawmakers have always kept them going. The Republican chairmen of the Senate and House agriculture committees both said Tuesday they oppose Trump’s proposed cuts.
The budget would eliminate three economic development agencies and several grant programs aimed at preserving the environment and dealing with climate change. The Minority Business Development Agency, the Economic Development Administration and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership would be eliminated.
The budget would also eliminate several grant programs run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: the Sea Grant, the National Estuarine Research Reserve System, Coastal Zone Management Grants, the Office of Education and the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund.
The Pentagon’s proposed 2018 budget would fund increases of almost 43,000 in the size of the active duty military and 13,000 in the Reserves. It provides troops a 2.1 percent pay raise, adds F/A-18 fighter jets and seeks a new round of base closures, which Congress routinely rejects.
It also increases the amount of money used for training Afghan forces and conducting counterterror operations in Afghanistan.
Eliminates after-school and teacher training programs, ends subsidized federal student loans and loan forgiveness programs for public servants, funds year-round Pell grants and expands funding for school choice for low-income students.
Trump’s budget would hike spending for the National Nuclear Security Administration, which is responsible for maintaining the nuclear stockpile, while cutting other energy spending. The budget seeks $120 million to revive the mothballed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository (pictured below), which is hugely unpopular in Nevada and was largely stopped by the efforts of former Democratic Sen. Harry Reid.
The budget also slashes $700 million from an Energy Department office that promotes energy efficiency and renewable energy and eliminates the Office of Science and the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), which supports research into new energy technologies.
The budget cuts EPA by nearly one-third, eliminating more than 3,800 jobs while imposing dramatic cuts to clean air and water programs. Adjusted for inflation, the proposed budget would represent the nation’s lowest funding for environmental protection since the mid-1970s. The Superfund pollution cleanup program would be cut by $330 million, to $762 million.
The budget initiates deep cuts to health insurance programs for people with modest incomes, including coverage for children. Those cuts would go beyond the House GOP bill that repeals much of the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare,” and limits future federal financing for Medicaid.
The budget asks Congress for $2.6 billion for border security that would include a down payment for Trump’s long-promised wall and increased technology along the U.S.-Mexican border. The budget calls for $314 million to hire 500 new Border Patrol agents and 1,000 agents for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
It also requests a $1.5 billion increase for ICE to arrest, detain and deport immigrants in the country illegally. The plan also proposes cutting about $667 million in grants administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. That includes proposed cuts to the Urban Area Security Initiative and eliminating the Transportation Security Administration’s law enforcement grants.
The budget would eliminate HUD’s Community Development Block Grant program, a $3 billion effort that funds local improvement projects, affordable housing construction and other social supports like meals for seniors and enrichment programs for low-income children.
The budget proposal says the program is not well targeted to poor populations and hasn’t showed measurable impact on communities. The administration’s budget also seeks to cut costs to the department’s rental assistance programs — a $2 billion decrease to $35.2 billion. Rental assistance programs comprise about 80 percent of the agency’s total funding.
The budget calls for opening Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling, where it is now prohibited, while eliminating offshore oil revenues used by Gulf Coast states to restore disappearing shorelines.
Arctic drilling, a contentious issue that would require congressional approval, would generate an estimated $400 million a year in tax revenues by 2022, according to the White House. Elimination of revenue-sharing to the four Gulf Coast states — Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas — would generate $1.6 billion over the next five years, the document says. The proposal also includes money for seismic surveys to provide data for possible offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean where it is now barred.
The budget adds $26 million for 300 new assistant U.S. attorneys to fight gangs, violent crime and illegal immigration. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has identified those areas as his top priorities. The plan calls for 230 of these prosecutors to be stationed in yet-to-be-named cities deemed hot spots for violence.
A budget that puts #AmericaFirst must make safety its no. 1 priority—without safety there can be no prosperity: https://t.co/9lxx1iQo7m
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 16, 2017
Another 70 will be assigned to border states, focusing on those who enter and re-enter the country illegally after deportation, as well as document-fraud, human smuggling, drug trafficking and other immigration-related offenses.
Trump is proposing cuts in job training programs including $434 million for the Senior Community Service Employment Program, $238 million by closing Job Corps centers, and $68 million for the Bureau of International Labor Affairs. He is proposing $90 million more for apprenticeships that result in jobs and a parental leave program of six weeks.
The budget cancels five planned missions to observe Earth and monitor climate change, saving $191 million. It eliminates an Obama-era mission to send astronauts to an asteroid. It also slashes NASA education spending by two-thirds and makes smaller cuts to exploration and space operations, along with increases in spending to explore other planets.
Eliminates funding for the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, as part of a $780 million cut to international organizations. Also eliminates $1.6 billion in funding for climate change and slashes assistance for refugees and global health. That includes $222 million cut in an international fund for fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Proposal also ends $523 million for international family planning programs.
Trump proposes that the government pay $200 billion toward the $1 trillion cost of improving the nation’s infrastructure — rebuilding aging roads, bridges, water systems and more. Private investments would pay the rest, under his plan. He’s also suggesting cutting grants to Amtrak long distance services by $630 million and reducing the Highway Trust Fund by $95 billion over a decade.
Treasury oversees the Internal Revenue Service and the agency responsible for managing the government’s payment systems. The IRS would see a 2.1 percent budget cut, but says it will continue to seek less costly ways of delivering taxpayer services. Trump’s budget would provide increased investment for cybersecurity as well as implementing the sanctions program to combat terrorist financing. The budget would also seek initial funding to replace the aging Washington facility for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing that produces the nation’s paper currency.
The budget proposes a $4.3 billion increase in discretionary spending, mostly to pay for medical care at more than 1,200 VA facilities nationwide serving about 9 million enrolled veterans. That’s a 5.8 percent increase as the Department of Veterans Affairs expands its network to include more private health providers.
I will take care of the Veterans who have served this country so bravely.#ThankAVet Video: https://t.co/WH9GSeSH29 pic.twitter.com/WMR7jnmsyz
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2016
The budget also calls for $2.9 billion in mandatory budget authority for 2018 and $3.5 billion in 2019 to pay for expansion of the Veterans Choice private-sector program. To help pay for rising costs from that program, the VA would cap the amount of educational benefits veterans receive under the GI bill to roughly $21,000 a year and halt “individual unemployability” benefit payments to out-of-work disabled veterans once they reach retirement age.
The overall unemployment rate for April 2017 sits at 3.9 percent, just where it was a year earlier, according to data from the state’s Department of Labor. However, the rate rose over year-over-year the year for Nassau County as well as for the city of Long Beach, the towns of Hempstead, Oyster Bay, Huntington, Smithtown and Southampton, and the village of Lindenhurst. The charts show April rates for 2017 and 2016 and the table below gives details. This data posted on May 23, 2017.
| APRIL 2017 | Labor Force | Employed | Unemployed | Jobless Rate (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long Island | 1,470,900 | 1,413,600 | 57,300 | 3.9 |
| Nassau County | 696,600 | 670,700 | 25,900 | 3.7 |
| Freeport | 22,600 | 21,500 | 1,100 | 4.9 |
| Glen Cove | 14,000 | 13,500 | 500 | 3.6 |
| Hempstead Town | 397,100 | 381,600 | 15,500 | 3.9 |
| Hempstead Village | 27,300 | 26,000 | 1,300 | 4.7 |
| Long Beach | 19,500 | 18,800 | 700 | 3.4 |
| N. Hempstead Town | 112,200 | 108,400 | 3,800 | 3.4 |
| Oyster Bay Town | 153,800 | 148,400 | 5,400 | 3.5 |
| Rockville Centre | 12,000 | 11,600 | 400 | 3.6 |
| Valley Stream | 19,600 | 18,800 | 800 | 3.9 |
| Suffolk County | 774,300 | 742,800 | 31,400 | 4.1 |
| Babylon Town | 111,200 | 106,400 | 4,800 | 4.3 |
| Brookhaven Town | 252,700 | 242,700 | 10,000 | 4.0 |
| Huntington Town | 103,900 | 100,100 | 3,900 | 3.7 |
| Islip Town | 177,900 | 170,700 | 7,100 | 4.0 |
| Lindenhurst Village | 15,300 | 14,600 | 600 | 4.2 |
| Riverhead Town | 15,900 | 15,300 | 700 | 4.3 |
| Smithtown Town | 59,700 | 57,600 | 2,100 | 3.5 |
| Southampton Town | 29,100 | 27,700 | 1,400 | 4.7 |
| New York City | 4,209,300 | 4,043,900 | 165,400 | 3.9 |
| New York State | 9,619,300 | 9,213,800 | 405,600 | 4.2 |
| MARCH 2017 | Labor Force | Employed | Unemployed | Jobless Rate (%) |
| Long Island | 1,463,800 | 1,405,200 | 58,600 | 4.0 |
| Nassau County | 692,700 | 666,900 | 25,700 | 3.7 |
| Freeport | 22,600 | 21,400 | 1,200 | 5.3 |
| Glen Cove | 14,000 | 13,400 | 700 | 4.6 |
| Hempstead Town | 394,900 | 379,500 | 15,500 | 3.9 |
| Hempstead Village | 27,500 | 25,900 | 1,600 | 5.9 |
| Long Beach | 19,400 | 18,700 | 700 | 3.4 |
| N. Hempstead Town | 111,600 | 107,800 | 3,800 | 3.4 |
| Oyster Bay Town | 152,700 | 147,500 | 5,100 | 3.4 |
| Rockville Centre | 11,900 | 11,500 | 400 | 3.4 |
| Valley Stream | 19,400 | 18,700 | 700 | 3.8 |
| Suffolk County | 771,100 | 738,300 | 32,900 | 4.3 |
| Babylon Town | 110,500 | 105,800 | 4,800 | 4.3 |
| Brookhaven Town | 251,400 | 241,200 | 10,300 | 4.1 |
| Huntington Town | 103,400 | 99,500 | 3,900 | 3.8 |
| Islip Town | 177,100 | 169,700 | 7,400 | 4.2 |
| Lindenhurst Village | 15,100 | 14,500 | 600 | 3.9 |
| Riverhead Town | 16,000 | 15,200 | 800 | 5.3 |
| Smithtown Town | 59,200 | 57,200 | 2,000 | 3.4 |
| Southampton Town | 29,300 | 27,500 | 1,700 | 5.9 |
| New York City | 4,224,400 | 4,051,200 | 173,200 | 4.1 |
| New York State | 9,615,300 | 9,195,000 | 420,200 | 4.4 |
| APRIL 2016 | Labor Force | Employed | Unemployed | Jobless Rate (%) |
| Long Island | 1,471,200 | 1,414,400 | 56,800 | 3.9 |
| Nassau County | 696,500 | 671,200 | 25,400 | 3.6 |
| Freeport | 22,700 | 21,500 | 1,100 | 4.9 |
| Glen Cove | 14,000 | 13,500 | 500 | 3.6 |
| Hempstead Town | 397,000 | 381,900 | 15,200 | 3.8 |
| Hempstead Village | 27,400 | 26,100 | 1,300 | 4.7 |
| Long Beach | 19,500 | 18,800 | 600 | 3.3 |
| N. Hempstead Town | 112,300 | 108,500 | 3,800 | 3.4 |
| Oyster Bay Town | 153,700 | 148,500 | 5,200 | 3.4 |
| Rockville Centre | 12,000 | 11,600 | 400 | 3.6 |
| Valley Stream | 19,600 | 18,800 | 800 | 4.0 |
| Suffolk County | 774,700 | 743,200 | 31,500 | 4.1 |
| Babylon Town | 111,400 | 106,500 | 5,000 | 4.5 |
| Brookhaven Town | 253,000 | 242,800 | 10,200 | 4.0 |
| Huntington Town | 103,700 | 100,100 | 3,500 | 3.4 |
| Islip Town | 178,100 | 170,800 | 7,300 | 4.1 |
| Lindenhurst Village | 15,200 | 14,600 | 600 | 4.0 |
| Riverhead Town | 16,000 | 15,300 | 700 | 4.4 |
| Smithtown Town | 59,700 | 57,600 | 2,100 | 3.4 |
| Southampton Town | 29,100 | 27,700 | 1,300 | 4.6 |
| New York City | 4,133,600 | 3,933,500 | 200,100 | 4.8 |
| New York State | 9,577,000 | 9,137,600 | 439,400 | 4.6 |
Long Island’s weather history got a shot in the arm when 20 more years of daily data were recently added to the area’s official records.
Weather data for Long Island MacArthur Airport now goes back nearly 54 years to September 1963.
This means that some previous records, such as for highest or lowest temperatures, have been displaced, as well as the reconfiguring of some the “top 10” lists for weather extremes.
Here’s a look at some of the new dates that have cracked the Long Island weather charts.
July 3, 1966: The temperature hit 104 degrees on this day, booting out July 5, 1999, previously considered Long Island’s hottest day at 102 degrees.
The record-breaking temperatures caused five cars of a Long Island Rail Road train to derail at Eastport, when the track “buckled,” according to a Newsday article.
That July 4 holiday weekend was part of Long Island’s hottest 3-day stretch on record at the time, resulting in “unprecedented traffic jams from overheated cars and the worst case of road-buckling in memory,” a July 5, 1966 Newsday article said.
Feb. 13, 1967: Long Island experienced a frigid minus 14 degrees on this day. The new weather data also replaced the second-coldest day, which is now Jan. 18, 1965, when the temperature fell to minus 8 degrees. Before that, the record was minus 7 degrees on Jan. 22, 1984 and Jan. 15, 1988.
On this record-setting day, Newsday also reported on a heroic rescue. Three young skaters fell through thin ice on the Ketcham River and were rescued by a lawyer and police officers who turned spare tires, ladders and an oar into life-saving rescue devices, Newsday reported. The three children were transported to a nearby hospital.
January 1977: This month saw an average monthly temperature of just 20.8 degrees, displacing the previous record of February 2015, which had an average temperature of 21.6 degrees.
The frigid temperatures at the start of 1977 overwhelmed heating-oil retailers with orders, according to Newsday articles that month. Oil dealers also reported an unusual number of calls from homeowners who wanted to convert to natural gas. And the Long Island Lighting Co. was advising natural gas customers to keep the heat at 65 to conserve the scarce fuel.
While the added data from MacArthur breaks some daily records, overall it also falls in line with a trend toward warmer, wetter conditions in the region.
Despite a slew of new record-setting days and months, overall, there were still more records set for heat and rain in the past 25 years than the years prior to that.
Here are the top 10 dates for warmest and wettest months. Dates that were part of the newly added 1963-1983 data set are in bold:
However, MacArthur’s revised top 10 list for the coldest temperatures skew toward the earlier years — the ’60s through the early ’80s. The list of snowiest months also includes a good representation from that time frame.
Read more about Long Island’s weather history here.
Research: Newsday library, Northeast Regional Climate Center
Beach season is approaching, and so are the piping plovers.
With the return of warm weather in the northeast comes the seasonal return of piping plovers — those tiny shorebirds who build nests on the beaches of Long Island and much of the Atlantic coast this time of year.
The latest cause for concern for the federally protected species is Hurricane Matthew, which hit the Bahamas last fall — the prime season for piping plovers to winter there. Scientists say it’s too soon to know how the population was affected but they’ll be keeping a cautious eye out for their return north this year.
As they do, here’s what you need to know about the piping plover, its habits on Long Island, and why the tiny bird may affect your beach access.
For many years researchers knew that piping plovers migrated south to Florida, the Gulf Coast and Texas for the winter. But 11 years ago, international census efforts began and have revealed the tiny birds also fly internationally to places like the Bahamas, Cuba and Turks and Caicos. About one-quarter of the Atlantic Coast population winters in the Bahamas, primarily on the northern part of Andros Island, Joulter Cays and the Berry Islands.
The path of one piping plover shows its movement through the Bahamas, Georgia, North Carolina, and Long Island. Credit: Newsday / Rod Eyer
The birds begin arriving on Long Island in mid-March and start courting. The male sets up shallow scrapes – they aren’t nests until there are eggs – above the high tide mark in typically wide-open sandy spots. The female will pick the most appealing scrape, usually an indentation in the sand with shells and rocks, no grasses. Eggs are laid between May and June. Incubation takes up to 31 days and the young fledge within about 35 days. By September, most are gone.
Only half of all plovers survive their first year. The birds, part of the Atlantic Coast population, are listed as endangered in the state and have been protected under the federal Endangered Species Act since 1986. Less than 4,000 can be found along the eastern Atlantic, from South Carolina to Canada. In 2016, 381 breeding pairs came to New York, the bulk of them on Long Island. The biggest population is at Jones Beach State Park.
These tine shorebirds weigh between 1.5 and 2.25 ounces and are about 5.5 inches long. Their first clutch usually consists of four eggs. If the nest is not successful, the plovers will continue to try a few more times but each clutch will typically have one less egg. So, the more the birds are left alone and the more successful the nesting, the faster they will leave — and the sooner protective fencing, signs and restrictions on recreation will end.
