ONE COLD DAY IN MARCH

It was a cold day in March on the outer beaches of Cape Cod. The temperature was around 30 degrees, and the icy rain combined with the 22 mph winds punished any exposed skin to the intense climate. Cape Cod National Seashore (CCNS) employs a team of trained shorebird monitors, one of whom trudged down the steep mountain-like sand dunes in thick winter-gear, struggling between the physical restrictions of many thermal layers, winter boots, goggles, and the force of wintry elements on the seashore that day. Walking through the sand in harsh weather is akin to walking through thick snow. 

The monitor scanned the sandy landscape looking for tennis ball-shaped scrapes in the sand. The subtle indentations, or scrapes, appear anywhere from the shoreline to the highest point in the dunes and are the nests built by pudgy, little shorebirds called Piping Plovers. Shorebird monitors begin to locate nests in late April, often times calling out against the whipping wind for the rest of the team to come check out their find. Team members work diligently to construct barriers that will hopefully keep humans away until the baby plover hatches from its sand-colored shell and eventually fledges. From around the deserted shore it resembles a sandy arctic plain with brutal winds and the vast emptiness. One nest protected. Hundreds to go. 

THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT

Each year in early spring, the shorebirds come to Cape Cod beaches to mate with each other and lay their eggs in pockets of the sand that they scrape out. They will scrape anywhere from two to 100 pockets to lay their eggs anywhere from the tideline to the higher dunes. The scrapes are often difficult to see as they are the same color as...