It's one of the most unfortunate confluences in the natural world: beach-nesting bird season coincides with beach-going human season. Beach-nesting species, including the Piping Plover, American Oystercatcher, and Least Tern, prefer the same white sand beaches that people do, and for centuries they've evolved and adapted to survive there, mainly through camouflage. They don't bother with collecting sticks for nests, opting instead to lay eggs directly on the sand. And their eggs and chicks blend near-perfectly into the bleached terrain. Now, however, these adaptations work against them as our joyful bare feet and all-terrain tires unknowingly squash eggs, chicks, and even adults out of existence each summer. It also doesn’t help that their required nesting habitat happens to be some of the most valuable real estate in some of the most populous regions in the world. Thankfully, scientists and naturalists recognized the rapid decline of many species, and protection and...