Piping plover and its chick on Jones Beach Island, New York

© Vicki Jauron/Getty Image

Hooray for mom!. The parenting of a piping plover

To celebrate Mother’s Day this year, we’re on Jones Beach Island in New York, where piping plovers are helping their newly hatched chicks prepare to leave the nest—just hours after they hatch. While mom and dad were sitting on the unhatched eggs, if a predator, such as a fox, raccoon, or housecat were to get too close, they’d fake an injured wing and limp away from the nest to draw the animal away. That’s some extra-mile parenting! Who knows if that little chick will remember to call mom this time next year…