Atlantic Bird Makes Slow Resurgence

A piping plover, an endangered shorebird, runs along the sand at Seawall Beach, in Phippsburg, Maine, Tuesday, June 13, 2006. Two decades after the Atlantic piping plover was declared a threatened species, biologists are now crediting beach closures, twine barriers and other buffers between birds and humans for a 141 percent increase in the piping plover population. (AP Photo/Pat Wellenbach)

(AP) -- The tiny Atlantic piping plover, a federally protected bird, has given beachgoers headaches for decades. The species breeds on East Coast beaches during warm weather, which means entire stretches of shoreline can be put off limits just as people want to enjoy the coast. But today, two decades after the plover was declared a threatened species, biologists are crediting the beach closures, twine barriers and other buffers between birds and humans for a 141 percent increase in the Atlantic piping plover population.