beach, birds and fireworks

So tonight i headed back to the beach as a volunteer to watch the fenced off areas of the bird colony during the fireworks. i met more volunteers. Jan and i were position on the beach side centered in the middle of the colony (but on the other side of the fenced area). as we were walking over to our position, we noticed foot tracks inside the colony area. i mean, come one, there are signs everywhere saying "stay out, endangered birds", etc. and people are still going in there? sorry, but that makes me sick.

the fences were extended yesterday to give the birds a bigger area. we noticed tonight that the birds are venturing closer to the shore, which is a good thing. there are so many birds inside the colony that it is a bit dense. but widening the area, it gives the birds space and encourages the fledglings to venture further away and allows the chicks to have a better chance at getting fed. there seems to be a lack of food source (fish), so the fledglings are killing some of the chicks as they fight over food. (makes me want to go out and buy some fish for them). right as the birds seemed like they were settling down for the evening, the fireworks started - and that caused them to panic and fly off. i took an interesting picture of them as they were scattering. it's all good info to have, because now the woman who runs the volunteers, Nancy Maclearie-Hayduk can give all this information to the biologists involved and speak with the township about moving the fireworks down a few blocks.

here are the birds scattering

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