First piping plover eggs of the season spotted at Montrose Beach and Waukegan

Two of Montrose Beach’s piping plovers, Sea Rocket and Imani, have laid their first egg of the year.

It’s the third season the beloved birds have nested together at Montrose. The pair is able to lay up to four eggs a season. As of this weekend, one egg was spotted, said Tamima Itani, the lead volunteer coordinator for Chicago Piping Plovers, a volunteer group dedicated to protecting the birds.

“It’s very exciting that they’re nesting now. We really hope everything goes well and we hope they have chicks,” Itani said.

It usually takes four to five weeks for a plover egg to hatch, Itani added.

Imani, the offspring of piping plovers Monty and Rose, was hatched at Montrose Beach in 2021. Sea Rocket, who was reared in captivity, was released at the same beach in July 2023. Since then, the pair has been inseparable.

Up in Waukegan, plovers Pippin and Blaze have also laid an egg, Itani said. Pippin was a bachelor for the last two seasons at both Montrose Beach and in Waukegan. Pippin returned to the area in April with a missing foot and a limp. He otherwise appears to be in good health.

“We’re really happy for them,” Itani said.

So far this season in Illinois, about 20 piping plovers have either passed through the state or stopped to breed, Itani said.

“That’s really mind-blowing,” she said. “That speaks to the success of the recovery efforts for the birds.”

Piping plovers nearly went extinct in the Great Lakes region. The birds have been on the federal endangered species list for 40 years. But conservation work in Michigan and across the Great Lakes has helped to rebuild the birds’ population.

For the birds to no longer be considered endangered, there needs to be 150 breeding pairs in the region, 50 of which need to be outside of Michigan, Itani said. Last year, a record 88 nesting pairs were spotted in the area, according to the Great Lakes Piping Plovers.

Before the weekend, there were 32 confirmed active nests in the Great Lakes area so far this season, Itani said. That doesn’t include the Chicago and Waukegan nests.