Endangered Shorebirds Fencing

New Jersey Nature Conservancy put out a call via FB for help putting up the fences to protect the nesting shorebirds on the South Cape May beach. We have Piping Plovers, Least Terns and American Oystercatchers that all nest on the beach during May-August. The past 2 years Black Skimmers have come to the beach but so far they haven't nested here. Everyone is hoping that they'll choose to nest on this beach one year soon. All of these birds nest on the beach in small depressions where they lay their eggs. So each spring symbolic fencing is put up as a marker to keep people off some of the beach area to give the birds space to have their nests. I decided to go help put up the fencing. It was a beautiful sunny day with temperatures in the low 70's, very remarkable for March but our whole winter & spring have been unusual. There were 5 volunteers in addition to the 4 staff. We saw 5 or 6 Piping Plovers along with 4 American Oystercatchers during our workday.