MOFFIT - A piping plover project at Long Lake National Wildlife Refuge likely has turned up evidence that western snowy plovers, rarely documented in the state, are nesting there.

Carol Aron and Paul Van Ningen, biologists for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, found a nest with three speckled, sandy-colored eggs Thursday on a sandy stretch of shore at Long Lake National Wildlife Refuge after a snowy plover was accidentally pushed off the spot.

The snowy plover and its mate stayed in the area, and one of the birds did a broken-wing display in the vicinity of the nest. Some bird species attempt to lure perceived threats away by pretending to have a broken wing, making them appear to be an easier catch.

"There has never been a nest recorded in the state," said Van Ningen, who manages the refuge that's southeast of Moffit, off U.S. Highway 83.

Nebraska is typically as close to North Dakota as snowy plovers come. The USFWS considers snowy plovers a "species of concern," which is a step down from being placed under the protection of the Endangered Species Act.

But neither he nor Aron, an endangered species biologist for the Bismarck USFWS office, is ready to say with 100 percent certainty that the nest belongs to snowy plovers.

"I'm 95 percent sure. They only thing keeping me from being 100 percent is not seeing her back on the nest," Van Ningen said.

The problem wasn't the snowy plover being nest shy, but that Van Ningen's line of sight to the nest was partially obscured by intervening vegetation.

Aron marked the general area with a stake from one of the cages designed to protect piping plover nests and chicks from predators. She and Van Ningen then moved away from the area, sat down and watched the birds through binoculars.

"If they re-nest, they only lay three eggs if it's late enough," Aron said, binoculars to her eyes. "And it's late enough."

"A snowy went in there, but I can't see her on the nest," Van Ningen said. "And no other bird went in there."

The biologists' plan that morning was to check on the increasing numbers of piping plovers calling the refuge and its alkaline lakes home.

On her earlier visits to Long Lake NWR, Aron had covered several piping plover nests with wire cages to keep out predators. Without the protection of the cages, piping plovers' only defense against predators is to impersonate the sandy habitat where they nest. Gulls are plovers' biggest threats.

Thursday's visit was aimed at revisiting the cages to see if any piping plover chicks had hatched. Piping plovers are classified as a "threatened" species. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers oversees plovers on the Missouri River, which it also manages. And the USFWS is responsible for managing the birds elsewhere in the state.

Although she and Van Ningen watched plenty of paired off piping plovers, they found only two active nests and several nests that had failed.

They found no chicks during their three-hour check.

"It's depressing to find no chicks," Aron said.

"They look like they are sitting around wondering if they are going to get washed out again," Van Ningen said. The refuge received more than an inch of rain June 16 and June 17. More than 10 inches of rain have fallen at the refuge in the past 30 days, he added.

Aron guessed many piping plover pairs lost nests to the weekend's severe weather.

"They would just be restarting (nesting) now," she added.

But snowys were more common than on her recent visits.

"Every time Icome here, it seems like I see six more snowys," she said as she, Van Ningen and a Tribune outdoor writer walked a sandy stretch of shore teeming with shorebirds and mosquitoes. Biologists have documented 34 species of shorebirds at Long Lake NWR, nine of which nest there.

She reported seeing one or two snowys during an early June trip to the refuge. On a June 12 trip she reported seeing two pairs of snowy plovers.

Aron estimated eight to 10 pairs of snowys on Thursday. A snowy plover is about the size of a house sparrow, and piping plovers are slightly bigger.

"If (the eggs) turn out to be valid, we will have added a new species to North Dakota's avifauna," said Bismarck birder Dan Svingen. "This is particularly exciting because the snowy plover is declining. So any successful nesting it has is worth celebrating."

Svingen characterized snowy a plover as "cute. It looks so awkward, yet it runs really fast and is a strong flier." He also chairs the North Dakota Birding Society's records committee that has the final say on accepting rare bird sightings in the state.

The first snowy plover was recorded in the state in 1935, Svingen added. "Then we had a break of 64 years before the next sighting."

Van Ningen discounted the possibility that another shorebird species made the nest. The nest showed all of the plover characteristics, including the scraped-out bowl lined with small rocks.

Aron decided not to place a protective cage around the nest.

"They seem more wary than piping plovers are," she said.

Van Ningen and Aron researched the discovery later Thursday.

"The predominant clutch size is three eggs, and the nest and eggs are of similar appearance to the nest we found, substantiating the characteristics of the nest we found," he wrote Friday in an e-mail.

All that's left is to confirm a snowy plover sitting on the nest.

"We won't know without going down there and chasing her off," Van Ningen told Aron Thursday morning as they watch the snowy return to the vicinity of the nest after they had backed off.

But both were content to watch from afar rather than compounding the snowy plovers' wariness.

(Reach outdoor writer Richard Hinton at 250-8256 or richard.hinton@;bismarcktribune.com.)