A popular strip of beach along the Jersey Shore has gone to the birds — and no one seems to mind, really. NBC 4 New York’s Brian Thompson reports.
What to Know
- A New Jersey shore community has moved its weekly beach fireworks show to accommodate endangered birds nesting and hatching there
- More than 150 pairs of American oystercatchers, least terns, and black skimmers laid eggs near Jenkinson's Aquarium in Point Pleasant Beach
- Officials have moved the weekly summer fireworks shows, which started Thursday, to an area south of where the birds are located
A New Jersey shore community has moved its weekly beach fireworks show to accommodate endangered birds nesting and hatching there.
More than 150 pairs of American oystercatchers, least terns, and black skimmers have successively laid eggs near Jenkinson's Aquarium in Point Pleasant Beach. So officials have moved the weekly summer fireworks shows, which started Thursday, to an area south of where the birds are located.
The nesting and hatching area has been roped off and aquarium employees are monitoring the birds at least twice a day. Some birds have already nested and hatched, while others have just started to nest.
Officials estimate the birds will be around for at least another six weeks.
Aquarium officials say visitors are encouraged to observe the birds.
Although the beach has "gone to the birds," visitors, and residents alike, do not seem to mind.
Local
"I think it is nature doing its natural thing," resident Mike Ruscica said.
In recent weeks another annual Jersey Shore tradition — a summer concert series at Sandy Hook's Berach E — was cancelled order to also ensure the safety of a threatened, federally-protected bird that made its home on its beaches: the Piping Plover.
