Volunteers Will Try to Protect Sandy Point's Piping Plovers from Fourth of July Fireworks

Volunteers in the New Haven area will be getting together around the Fourth of July to help protect nesting piping plovers at Sandy Point from fireworks. Here's the announcment, from the Connecticut Birds e-mail list:

The Office of Cultural Affairs, City of New Haven is requesting volunteers to help protect piping plovers at Sandy Point Beach, West Haven, for the City of West Haven's fireworks celebration on 6/29/06 and for the City of New Haven's fireworks celebration on 7/4/06. Volunteers will be provided with T-shirts and badges identifying them (or wear your own environmentally-conscious T-shirt). A police officer will be on hand. It runs from 6:30 pm - 10 pm both nights, but volunteers can come for either a short shift or the whole night.

Sandy Point is an amazing place for birds, but it’s also irresistible for people, and in nesting season the two don’t mix as well as one might hope. I wrote about Sandy Point a few times last year, here and here, and specifically about the fireworks issue, here.