A pair of piping plovers is nesting at the Roger Wheeler State Beach in Narragansett, but their new home is in a peculiar spot. 

The two were found in a strip of vegetation growing out of a crack in the beach’s parking lot. undefined

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management will be fencing off the area around the nest to protect it, which will mean less parking spaces during this busy season.

The department says beach-goers should expect “plover-flow” traffic at the beach in the coming weeks.

Piping plovers are small, sand-colored migratory birds. They breed on Atlantic beaches from Canada to North Carolina. 

Piping plovers are a threatened species and protected under the federal Endangered Species Act.

A traffic cone sits next to a piping plover nest in a crack in the parking lot at the Roger Wheeler State Beach in Narragansett.

Avory joined the newsroom in April 2017. She reports on a variety of local environmental topics, including the offshore wind industry, fishery management and the effects of climate change. Avory can also...