Once it has established its nesting territory and performed courtship rituals, a pair of Piping Plovers form a depression in the sand close to the dunes. They sometimes line this nest with small stones or fragments of shell. Four eggs will be laid and hatch in 25 days. The young soon follow their parents in foraging for marine worms, crustaceans and insects found in the sand, and are flying 30 days from hatching.