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Photo Kaimi Rose Lum
Returning shorebirds are prompting pet bans on some beaches. |
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Pets and kites banned from beaches
Banner Daily Update Sun. Mar. 23
Banner Staff
Effective April 1, pets and kites will be prohibited on Coast Guard Beach, south of the former Coast Guard Station, in Eastham, and on Jeremy Point in Wellfleet. The measure goes into effect to protect the plovers and other ground-nesting shorebirds that are returning to the breeding grounds on the Outer Cape now that spring has arrived.
Piping plovers are sensitive to the presence of dogs, which they perceive as predators, and are more readily disturbed when a dog is approaching than when people are approaching, according to a press statement from the National Seashore. Greater threats are posed by dogs off leash which may pursue the flightless chicks or their parents, the Seashore says. In areas where dogs are permitted, they must be kept on leashes.
Kite-flying also disturbs the nesting and feeding behavior of endangered shorebirds because kites can resemble large predators hovering overhead, scaring the incubating parent bird off the nest and thus exposing the nest to real predators or disrupting the feeding of the chicks.
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Mar 20th, 2008