KARVAL, Colo. — Most people may not know what a Mountain Plover is or looks like, but for one community on the eastern plains, they have created an entire festival around the bird and are educating people about its importance.
Looking out on the "Welcome to Karval" sign, you will not find a gas station or any hotels in sight. This unincorporated community in Lincoln County has a population in the five-hundreds, serving as a community where everyone knows everyone. Dan Mereweher moved to Karval as his wife grew up there and they knew it was a "great place to raise a family."
WATCH: Learn more about how a small bird became so ingrained in the community that they made a festival for it.
Debbie Kravig has called the area home since 1998. Her grandparents homesteaded there, her mother was raised there, and it was where she would raise her family.
"Well, when you grow up here, you're always around cattle and horses, and it's just where you belong," said Kravig. "It's what you know."
Where is Karval?
This unincorporated community is not off a major road, and you could miss the signs for it on Colorado State Highway 71. There is also another route you could take with State Road 94 leading you to County Road 29.
The last weekend of April typically is a busy one for this community, as it is the school's prom, but also the Mountain Plover Festival. Merewether said the "population swells to almost twice its normal size," as birders travel from near and far to experience the weekend of birdwatching and join in the local lifestyle.
"Plover festival started about 20 years ago now, although for a couple of years we’ve been snowed out. It doesn’t look like that is a danger this year," Merewether said.
The closest motels are in Hugo and Limon, so this community embraces a true neighbor-helping-neighbor spirit, opening up their home to experience the local way of life.
Kravig said she usually has between four to five people stay with her, but that it varies from year to year.
"We just open up our homes, several people open up their homes, gracious about it, and their spare bedrooms or whatever, and we just find places for people to stay, and they don't get much sleep anyway," said Kravig. "So, even if it's a couch, it works out because they eat all the meals in the community building."
Registration is still open, where tickets can be purchased online for either Friday or Saturday, or both days.
What are mountain plovers?
Merewether shared a story about the mountain plovers first being spotted in this area, which involved a man named Russell Davis. Davis spotted a wildlife biologist on his property looking at the bird, who thought this species should be on the endangered species list.
A study prepared for the Bureau of Land Management by researchers Lee Grunau and Mike Wunder from Colorado State University's Natural Heritage Program cited the mountain plover declined by an estimated 63% from 1966 to 1996, which was "greater than declines shown in any other grassland endemic."
During the interaction with Davis and this biologist, there was a realization that these birds could thrive in this area, and ranchers could learn more about the species.
"There were some concerns about whether they should be put on the endangered species list, but we decided as a community that we would support them and that there was a way for us to conserve them without putting them on the threatened endangered species list," said Merewether. "We can do the things that we need to do as farmers and ranchers and still support the mountain plover population, and of course, it's a boon to us as a community."
While looking through his binoculars, Merewether laughed as he explained that mountain plovers are actually far from the mountains, preferring the prairie instead. According to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, these birds breed in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and the Texas Panhandle.
Merewether said the birds will lay their eggs in Karval in sets of three, and nesting season, which coincides with the festival, is typically the best time to spot them.
"It sets us apart from other communities, and a lot of the people associate Karval with the mountain plover, which is nice," Merewether said.
While this weekend will bring in a boost of birders, it's also a testament to this community's big heart for a small bird.
"It represents the prairie, the sunsets — where we live there’s good sunsets — and the prairie grasses, and the plover bird is a very good representation of the prairies and where we all come from," Kravig said.