‘How do they do it?’: Endangered piping plovers return to the same spot in Waukegan for a second year
A beloved shorebird couple recently reunited at a private beach along Lake Michigan in Waukegan, completing a remarkable journey for a second consecutive year.
In what ecstatic birders describe as an epic migration story, Blaze and Pepper, federally endangered piping plovers, arrived separately May 6, at nearly the same time on the same beach.
“Two birds, wintering in locations nearly 1,000 miles apart, arriving within a few feet of where they nested in 2024. How do they do it?” asked the Lake County Audubon Society in welcoming the pair home.
The plucky pair faced rough weather on their separate journeys — Blaze from North Carolina and Pepper from Florida — but arrived two weeks sooner than last year.
This week, they’ve been foraging along the shoreline, going through courtship displays and evaluating potential nesting sites, reported Brad Semel, endangered species recovery specialist with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
Still in question is the whereabouts of last year’s fledglings, Juniper, Sage and Willow, named after native plants at nearby Adeline Jay Geo Karis Illinois Beach State Park in Zion.
The little sand-colored plover, known for its antics and plaintive-sounding whistle, disappeared from Illinois beaches in the mid-1950s.
Estimated at less than 15 pairs in the mid-1980s, piping plovers with the help of dedicated volunteers and agencies are making a slow comeback.
“Piping plovers are special because they’re incredibly charismatic — the very fierceness that is needed as they struggle to come back from the edge of extinction,” said Carolyn Lueck, president of the Lake County Audubon Society.
“People get plover fever,” she added. “Once you get (it) it stays with you.”
The area the Waukegan plovers occupy is under surveillance and violators who try to enter are heavily fined. Public access is not allowed and monitors are issued permits and must pass security.
There currently are 30 confirmed pairs in the Great Lakes with 29 active nests, most at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in northern Michigan, Semel said.
That’s slightly behind 34 nests last year at this time, but the numbers are being tracked closely. Return arrivals this year include Searocket and her partner, Imani, as well as a “bachelor” male, Pippin, at Montrose Beach in Chicago.
“Hopefully, this trend continues and we get up to the record number observed last year (of) 81 breeding pairs and 124 fledged chicks,” he added.
Semel in 2023 drove 14 hours round-trip to get rescued chicks raised in captivity. Four were released at Illinois Beach and three at Montrose as Illinois was selected as the first site outside Michigan for captive-released chicks.
The overall recovery goal is 150 pairs for at least five consecutive years, Semel said, so they likely won’t be removed from the endangered list any time soon.
Besides a diverse shoreline habitat the ability to closely monitor them was among the factors for why Illinois was chosen.
That includes Sharing our Shore, a partnership between Lake County Audubon and Waukegan to help the plover and raise public awareness of the dune and lakefront area.
Lueck said intensive monitoring provides insight into variables affecting plover activities and data is shared with research partners and the public.
She said there is a need to gain municipal and public support to protect beaches and shoreline habitat.
“If you protect the piping plover and their habitat, you are going to protect a lot of species,” she said.
Waukegan has adopted the plover in other ways. Mayor Sam Cunningham will proclaim May 29 as Piping Plover Day and the bird is featured on the city’s vehicle sticker.
Also on May 29, a special screening of Lueck's film about the Sharing Our Shore-Waukegan program and the life cycle of Blaze & Pepper and the Great Lakes Piping Plovers will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. at the recently opened Waukegan History Museum at the Carnegie.