Rockaway Beach and Boardwalk natural area

Beach 3 St. to Beach 153 St. and Boardwalk to Atlantic Ocean

The Forever Wild area along the Rockaways welcomes the piping plover (Charadrius melodus) each spring. Piping plovers are small, plump migratory shorebirds that breed on Atlantic beaches from Newfoundland to Virginia, as well as on inland beaches from eastern Alberta and Nebraska east to the shores of Lake Ontario. In 1986 the piping plover was federally designated as endangered on the Great Lakes and threatened on the Atlantic Coast and unfortunately they continue to be imperiled.

Plovers breed on the same sandy beaches that humans enjoy. They build their nests in a slight depression in the sand called a scrape. The nests and eggs are very inconspicuous and therefore easy to destroy by accident. To keep the eggs cool in the hot sun and warm at night, male and female plovers take turns sitting on the scrape. When the chicks have hatched, the parents teach them to run back and forth from the scrape to the water's edge, where they eat invertebrates such as marine worms, fly larvae, beetles, crustaceans, and mollusks. Human activity is a problem for the birds. Even joggers on the beach can accidentally step on the young chicks, or distract the adults, leaving the chicks vulnerable. Every summer in the Arverne neighborhood of Rockaway Beach, an area between Beach 38th and Beach 57th Streets is cordoned off to limit disturbance to breeding piping plovers.

In addition to the main protected areas, there are a few small "satellite" sites for nesting birds to the east and the west along Rockaway Beach. NYC Parks' Wildlife Unit monitors the plovers on Rockaway Beach according to the guidelines provided by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Nests are observed at least three times a week, and records are kept regarding the number of plovers observed, the number of nesting pairs and the number of eggs in a clutch. Observations are usually made from afar using binoculars and spotting scopes so as not to disturb the nesting birds. Other species benefiting from this protection are common terns (Sterna hirundo), least terns (Sternula antillarum), American oystercatchers (Haematopus palliatus) - and a federally threatened plant, seabeach amaranth (Amaranthus pumilus).