Reminders Issued About Nests After Hotel Fined For Clearing

OCEAN CITY — After a resort hotel was fined late last month by the Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) for having employees remove nests and gather over 40 eggs of protected bird species, the Maryland Coastal Bays Program (MCBP) is issuing reminders most of the 300 species of birds that call the watershed are federally protected and tampering with nests is illegal.

According to NRP spokesperson Candy Thomson, the NRP received a call from Ocean City Animal Control shortly after noon on May 27 that the manager of the Comfort Inn on the Boardwalk had directed staff to clear any nests or bird eggs from the facility’s roof. The staff followed instructions and cleared the nests and put the eggs, some of which were just starting to hatch, in plastic bags.

Ocean City Animal Control took the eggs to a rehabilitator to see if they could be saved, according to Thomson. As a result, the hotel was fined $450 by the NRP for removing the nests, and while it might have been too late for those nests and eggs, the MCBP is reminding residents and property owners tampering with nests and eggs is illegal, especially with a critical nesting period for the endangered least tern getting underway. During the next few weeks, the least tern will start building nests on rooftops in Ocean City. The least tern is on the Maryland threatened species list and is federally protected as well, so the penalty for tampering with the species is significant, according to MCBP spokesperson Sandi Smith.

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