The American oystercatcher, a striking shorebird once pushed to the edge by hunting and habitat loss, is making a real comeback along the Atlantic coast.
It took ten years, roughly $10 million, and 35 coastal organizations across 16 states working together, banding birds and restoring nesting grounds one beach at a time.
Coordinating that many organizations across that many states was its own kind of achievement, before a single nest was even counted.
Their numbers are rising, and conservationists say the partnership model built for this project is now being used for other shorebird species along the same coastline.
