Beach Areas Close Tuesday

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service will close the beach above mean high tide at the Amagansett National Wildlife Refuge, which runs from Atlantic Avenue almost to Indian Wells Beach, and most of the Jessup’s Neck peninsula in the Elizabeth A. Morton National Wildlife Refuge in Sag Harbor on Tuesday to protect nesting shorebirds.

The federal agency puts these areas off limits from April 1 through Aug. 31 every year so that the piping plover, which is federally designated as a threatened species, and the least tern, which the state considers threatened, are able to nest and hatch eggs. The closed areas will be marked with signs, fencing, and rope.

According to the agency, one pair of piping plovers and 26 pairs of least terns nested at the Amagansett refuge and three pairs of plovers, 63 pairs of least terns, and one pair of American oystercatchers nested at Jessup’s Neck last year.