Up to 800 piping plover pairs once nested annually throughout the Great Lakes region, but by the 1980s that number had dwindled to about a dozen pairs, resulting in the species being placed on the …
Pepper, a male piping plover, courts Blaze, a female piping plover, on a sandy beach along Lake Michigan in Lake County. Blaze, a female piping plover, spent the winter in North Carolina. Pepper, a male piping plover, wintered 775 miles away in Florida.
“This is an amazing migration story,” said Carolyn Lueck, a volunteer plover monitor with the Lake County Audubon Society’s Sharing Our Shore-Waukegan program. “When I saw them, I got chills. I cried.” Meanwhile Sea Rocket, another captive-reared plover released at Montrose Beach in Chicago in July, returned the same day Blaze came back. Sea Rocket wintered in Texas. Semel said Sea Rocket appears to be interested in raising a family with Imani, one of three male piping plovers living on Montrose Beach.
Two captive-reared piping plovers released on this sandy beach in Lake County last July have returned to begin nesting. The 7-inch-long adult plover has a sandy-colored back, white breast with black band, orange-yellow legs and an orange bill tipped in black. In July, when Blaze and Pepper were young, they were mostly sandy-colored to blend in with pebbly beaches where the species nest.
Maram, Blaze, Pepper and Sunny, were released in July 2023 at Illinois Beach State Park after being captively raised in Michigan. Blaze and Pepper returned this year as adults to begin nesting. Semel looked for the bird from a distance with a spotting scope and noted the plover’s unique leg bands.Semel returned the next day, and as the sun was rising, he heard not one, but two melodic peeps from the beach. There were two plovers. One was Pepper. The other was Blaze. He watched Pepper digging scrapes in the sand while Blaze checked them out.
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