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Clean Beach Week
Even popular beaches can be home to vulnerable birds!
© Grigory Heaton
This week is Clean Beach Week. Many busy beaches are also where declining species such as Piping Plovers and Least Terns have their nests. Keeping litter off the shore helps make sure that birds don’t pick up plastic and other waste and try to feed it to their young. Staying out of dunes and marked-off areas where birds are known to nest ensures that people can share the beach with birds and their young for years to come.
BirdNote®
Celebrate Clean Beach Week
Written by Conor Gearin
This is BirdNote.
[Waves, beach crowd noise]
You might not think there would be birds raising their young on a popular beach. But many beaches are home to shorebirds such as Piping Plovers, tiny birds that often blend right in with the sand as they run around looking for food.
[Piping Plover calls]
These plovers hide their nests in plain sight by scraping a shallow ditch just above the high tide mark. After hatching, their chicks are soon able to walk on their own, looking like tiny puffballs on two twiggy legs.
[Piping Plover calls]
On big, sandy beaches, other birds such as Least Terns could be nesting there, too. Sounding like squeaky toys, Least Terns dive in the surf catching small fish.
[Least Tern calls]
This week is Clean Beach Week. Keeping litter off the shore helps make sure that birds don’t pick up plastic and other waste and try to feed it to their young. Staying out of dunes and marked-off areas where birds are known to nest ensures that people can share the beach with birds and their young for years to come.
[Least Tern calls]
To learn how you can do your part for Clean Beach Week, visit BirdNote dot org. I’m Michael Stein.
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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Least Tern ML40540481 recorded by Paul Marvin.
Piping Plover Xeno Canto 433082 recorded by Phil Brown.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2023 BirdNote July 2023
Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# beach-02-2023-07-03 beach-02
References:
https://nationaltoday.com/clean-beaches-week/
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Piping_Plover/overview
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Least_Tern/overview
Sights & Sounds
