Birds vs. Humans: Balancing Needs is the title of an article about conflict between endangered nesting bird species and human beach goers in Massachusetts.  But, really, the Piping Plovers and Least Terns nesting on the beach actually do need the beach while the humans probably don’t need to piss on the birds.  Even though they apparently are:

“People will tear up the fence and use it for fire,’’ said Selectman Rick Murray, who lives near the area.

Because the area has no facilities, people tend to use the fenced-off piping plover habitat as a bathroom, officials said. “There have been people with 30-packs of beer, and nature takes its course, and it’s over the piping plovers and into the sand dunes,’’ Murray explained.

But, of course, the human need to piss in the dunes and tear down fences for fires must be balanced with the actual need of birds to have undisturbed nesting habitat.

Written by Corey
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.