Plovers are some of the smallest birds found around the estuaries of coastal North Carolina. So small, in fact, they’re easily over looked. A resident of the North & South Carolina coasts during the winter months as well as southern coastal states from Georgia to California. They migrate to northern Canada and Alaska in spring to nest. I found this small group of plovers on a sandy area near the southeastern end of Carrot Island in the Rachel Carson Estuarine Reserve.