This is Bird Note. It's a perfect July beach day on the Rockaway Peninsula in

Queens. But NYC Plurver Project volunteers aren't here to relax. This

afternoon volunteers Trevor and Leanne are minding the Plurver Project's Board

Walk booth. They're spreading the word that while New Yorkers flock to the

Rockaways to sun and swim, so do nearly 100 of these endangered shorebirds to

nest and raise chicks. Chris Allieri started the NYC Plurver Project in

spring 2021 after getting a glimpse of the many threats that Plurver's face.

And all of a sudden I'm sitting there and I'm like oh my goodness it's a

piping plurver I had never seen one up close and then a dog runs after them

and then kids are up on the dunes and I'm like oh my god this is awful. Who's

gonna do something you know? Chris contacted the National Park Service and

together they set up volunteer training. Today the Plurver Project has a

volunteer force of about 75 volunteers also walk the beach asking people to

respect areas the park service has blocked off for the plurvers. They don't

always listen and volunteering can be heartbreaking raccoons and ghost

crabs eat plurver eggs, flooding washes away nests, but the Plurver Project

perseveres and so do the plurvers. Here's Leanne again. You're working with

birds but it's also a very humbling and human experience to care about

something so fragile. For Bird Note, I'm Lauren Vespoli.