The piping plover.
The Sandy Hook Foundation has cancelled free beach concerts by Remember Jones, Waiting on Mongo, Brian Kirk & the Jirks, Bobby Bandiera and others, in order to protect an endangered bird.
The annual series had been scheduled to run Wednesday nights at 6 p.m. from June 19 to Aug. 14, with Aug. 21 reserved for a show postponed by rain, if necessary.
According to an official statement from the Sandy Hook Foundation and Gateway National Recreation Area, the cancellation “is due to the needed protection of Piping Plovers, a threatened and federally-protected shorebird. The plovers have been building nests and laying eggs along most of Sandy Hook’s beaches.
“Noise scares the birds so much they can’t focus on what they flew here to do: live on Sandy Hook for a couple of months, then move on. This year, they have built more than 20 nests on the location that the Sandy Hook Foundation can use for its concerts.
“All along the Atlantic shore from the Carolinas to New Jersey beaches, there are fewer than 3,000 nesting pairs of these special birds. We want them to thrive and lose the moniker of being threatened.”
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