Piping plovers find summertime home
Family of birds make Montrose Beach their own
Monty and Rose were less than 2 months old when they first met on a beach in Waukegan.
After fledging from separate Michigan nests, they zoomed around on little stick legs. The birds, federally endangered Great Lakes piping plovers, spent a few days eating invertebrates in the same North Shore sand. Then they flew south.
Something must’ve stuck.
In 2018 the birds flew back to Waukegan and, as sometimes happens with species-saving efforts, things didn’t work out. Last summer the birds gave Montrose Beach a shot, and despite flying up against a music festival, lobbed volleyballs, a tanked clutch of eggs and the loss of a chick, they became the first piping plovers in a very long time to nest successfully in Chicago.
This year, the birds arrived at Montrose on the same day, hours apart, and settled on an empty beach. They got to work fledging three chicks — a big deal for small birds once down to about a dozen nesting pairs.
Throughout the summer, sometimes the plover family of five appeared to be relaxing in the sand, said Tamima Itani, of the Illinois Ornithological Society. “It felt like they owned the place.”
‘Rough out there for a plover’
Monty and Rose nested earlier this season in a more secluded spot that withstood the season’s rockiest storms. By the end of July, their three chicks were hanging out at Montrose without supervision. They had lost their fluff, and like their parents when they first met, were still missing their feathered collars.
There’s Hazel, named for environmental activist Hazel M. Johnson, Esperanza, named for “hope,” and Nish, which honors the region’s Potawatomi heritage.
Throughout the summer, birders said Nish and Hazel stuck together. Esperanza — who early on had a few lethargic days — stuck with Rose. On Monday, only Esperanza was seen at Montrose.
“I’m putting my bets on Esperanza showing up in Florida somewhere near where Rose is,” Itani said.
Females generally fly south first, but Rose stayed longer than expected.
Brad Semel, an endangered species recovery specialist with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, attributed the atypical behavior to the birds’ affinity for the flooded areas of the beach — known as the fluddle, a “primordial soup” — that became ideal foraging grounds.
Monty recently made a surprise appearance at a beach in northern Illinois where some Wisconsin plovers were transported after an outbreak of botulism. Some birders wondered if he wanted to visit Waukegan one more time.
“I think right now Monty is just kind of like, oh, I have time to kill,” Itani said.
Monty and Rose deserve their breaks, birders say, after the fierceness and care they displayed for their chicks. They wrestled with killdeer and chased away gulls. Rose suffered an eye injury during one of the bouts.
“It’s rough out there for a plover,” said Bob Dolgan, the creator of the Monty and Rose documentary. “This is a tough existence. Something like that, you worry that you could have lost Rose, and thankfully she healed.”
In perhaps the most dramatic moment of the summer, Monty and Rose uprooted their family and led four chicks on a trek through the dunes to a home closer to the fluddle. They ended with three.
But the journey, combined with a sleepy beach season, may have paid off. The surviving chicks were above average weight of 25 grams in early days — still less than a golf ball.
‘We’re very hopeful’
The chicks dipped down into one of the murky fluddles on a recent afternoon and bobbed back up with their white bellies. Guards in orange warded off any encroaching humans. One of the workers said watching the plovers helped him pass the time on the otherwise uninhabited beach.
The young birds aren’t yet in the clear; monitors recently removed a dead cormorant from one of the Montrose pools and are on watch for any other carcasses that could spark a botulism outbreak.
And the journey south will be their riskiest venture yet. Increasing frequency and intensity of storms during migration has had a serious impact on the population, Semel said. And they’ll be on their own if any famished merlins decide they’d like a plover snack.
On average, one of Monty and Rose’s three chicks is likely to survive.
“If they can leave with a very healthy body fat and energy reserves for that migration, we’re very hopeful that that’s going to give them a big head start,” Semel said.
The plovers’ story is just a snapshot of what goes into protecting endangered species, Semel said. “So maybe people can come away with a little appreciation of just how difficult it is in this world for some of these species to survive.”
This season, 64 pairs of piping plovers nested along all five Great Lakes. By the end of July, 84 wild young were considered fledged.
Unlike last year’s chicks, Hazel, Esperanza and Nish were banded, meaning they’ll be able to be tracked throughout their lives as online reports and photos come in, said Francie Cuthbert, a leader of the plover recovery effort and a professor in the department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology at the University of Minnesota.
The three chicks have unique combinations of colors and numbers that identify them as Great Lakes plovers — and as Monty and Rose’s offspring. They even have specific markings that identify them as individuals.
Usually, the birds would get a dot to correspond to their name. Monty and Rose’s chicks each have a different colored star for the Chicago flag.
‘Take a look around’
Last summer Monty and Rose appeared on shirts: “Chicago is for Plovers.” A proclamation from Gov. J.B. Pritzker declared Nov. 18 “Piping Plover Day” in the state of Illinois. They had their movie.
Now, the birds have their own beer. Piping Plover Pale Ale is on draft at Imperial Oak Brewing in Willow Springs. The cans, with a label featuring a cool plover in a sweater, holding a frothy mug, sold out this weekend. Part of the proceeds will go to the Chicago Ornithological Society.
Owner Grant Hamilton saw the Monty and Rose documentary and Dolgan, the creator of the film and a craft beer fan, followed up on a limited-edition tribute.
The result is a “summer sipping” beer made with cactus pear juice, a nod to the prickly pear cactus found in the Great Lakes dunes, Hamilton said. There’s a pink hue to it, and hops with some tropical notes — pineapple, orange.
“I wouldn’t quite call myself a birder yet but I’m definitely following along,” Hamilton said. “Do a little birding, then come by and cool down with a pint.”
Daniela Herrera, a volunteer monitor, said she might share some Plover Pale Ale with her grandma, a supporter of her birding adventures, as a birthday treat.
Herrera said she hopes the plovers encourage Chicagoans to make the trip to Montrose. “And just take a look around,” Herrera said. “Take in everything that’s there.”