Chris Davis, of the NJ Endangered and Nongame Species Program (an excellent biologist and a good friend), pointed out that if you look closely at the plover predation photos below, you can see the Fish Crow is actually behind the nest exclosure, not in it. As Chris told me, "We bury quite a bit of the wire under the ground so that when mammalian predators try to dig under they hit the wire and hopefully back off. We electrify the nests where that does not do the trick." So the crow grabbed the chick when it tried to exit the exclosure.
It should be known that were it not for the the diligent work of folks like Chris and her colleagues, Piping Plovers would have little chance of persisting in the mid-Atlantic - kudos to these people!
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