Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection officials are asking people to stay at least 50 yards away from nesting birds in coastal areas and avoid areas that are roped off or marked with signs designating nesting locations.

People visiting beaches should avoid areas where birds might be nesting in the sand to avoid accidentally destroying the nests or killing fledglings.

"Shorebirds and wading birds need special protection throughout their April to September nesting season," DEEP Deputy Commissioner Susan Whalen said in a statement.

Whalen said beachgoers also should refrain from bringing kites, fireworks, free-roaming cats and unleashed dogs to the beach to help protect incubating eggs, nesting birds like piping plovers, least terns, American oystercatchers, herons and egrets, which may abandon their nests if they are disturbed.  

DEEP has erected fencing and yellow warning signs along beaches where these birds build their shallow nests in the sand and roped off various off-shore islands where herons and egrets congregate.

The piping plover, a small sand-colored shorebird about the size of a robin, is a threatened species under both the federal and state Endangered Species Acts. Least terns nest in the same beach habitat as the piping plover and also are classified as a state threatened species.

People should not leave trash or food on the beach, which can attract predators of the chicks and eggs, and should not attempt to rescue young birds that appear to be lost or too young to fly.