New Hampshire Fish and Game: Piping plover eggs illegally removed from Hampton Beach

HAMPTON — New Hampshire Fish and Game is searching for the culprit who allegedly swiped two eggs from a nest of endangered piping plovers.

The eggs were taken between the evening of July 15 and the morning of July 16 from a nest on the northern part of Hampton Beach across from the former location of Ron’s Landing restaurant, according to Fish and Game. They said they documented footprints inside the fenced-in area protecting the eggs starting from the seawall and leading directly to the nest where the eggs were discovered missing.

“The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department is asking the public for help in identifying the person(s) responsible for tampering with a state-endangered piping plover nest,” the agency announced this week on social media.

The birds are considered threatened federally and endangered in New Hampshire. Violation of the federal Endangered Species Act can lead to felony charges that result in up to $5,000 fine and five years imprisonment, according to the National Parks Service. Violation of New Hampshire’s law protecting endangered animals can also result in criminal charges.

The birds disappeared in New Hampshire in the 1980s, then reappeared in 1997. Conservation efforts have been underway since then to bring their population back in New Hampshire. Brendan Clifford, a New Hampshire Fish and Game biologist, said in the spring the birds were expected to reach a record number of 16 total nests this year.

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New Hampshire is working in concert with other states like Massachusetts to restore the bird’s population. While New England is considered a leader in the effort to bring back the piping plover, officials like Clifford said it will take similar efforts in other parts of the Eastern Seaboard to improve the bird’s classification as a threatened species.

Plovers tend to intersect with the public when they interrupt beach season for tourists.

The birds prevented fireworks from going off earlier in the year at Hampton Beach when they nested within a half-mile of the area from the show’s staging area. The Hampton Beach Village District postponed the fireworks until the Fourth of July to avoid the risk of fines resulting from disrupting the birds until their nests had hatched.

Plover nests have been vandalized in the past. Clifford was monitoring plovers in 2010 when someone stole a nest full of eggs from Hampton Beach as well. The reward for information leading to an arrest at the time was $5,000. Officials stressed at the time the importance of letting the birds complete their nesting cycle. Susi von Oettingen, a biologist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the time, said vandalism extends the breeding season because the birds have to start over and lay new eggs.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Hampton Beach piping plover eggs, NH Fish and Game says