Three Waukegan piping plover chicks disappear, likely lost to predators

All three piping plover chicks named and banded in Waukegan last week have died, the Lake County Audubon Society announced Monday.

During the banding Aug. 4, volunteers gave the endangered chicks names: Dune, Pebbles and Drifter.

All three birds cannot be found, said Carolyn Lueck, Lake County Audubon Society president. Volunteers assume that they were eaten by predators, but it is difficult, if not impossible, to prove without bodies, she said.

Lueck said volunteers knew where to watch for the chicks, and they all disappeared sequentially. The first day, monitors only found two plovers. The next, there was only one. And the day after that, none were around.

Monitors can’t watch the birds 24/7, and it’s very possible they were preyed on at night when nobody was watching, she said.

What cemented the loss was when the chicks’ father, Pepper, was seen flying alone.

“(It) was really the moment we realized he was not flying with any chicks because they were likely taken by predators,” Lueck said.

Many different animals prey on piping plovers, including coyotes and gulls, she said. All three chicks were perfect weights and were foraging well, Lueck added, but they still hadn’t reached the critical age where they could avoid predators more easily.

“The odds are stacked pretty highly against them,” she said.

The same day the three Waukegan-born birds were banded, three captive-raised chicks from the University of Michigan Biological Station were released in Waukegan. Lueck said all three are “doing great.”

They’ve been spending time alongside Frankie and Buddy, she said. These siblings, hatched this year at Montrose Beach, are the grandchildren of Monty and Rose, who sparked a citywide conservation movement after raising the first successful piping plover chicks in Chicago in more than 70 years.

Lueck said the captive-hatched birds’ success is one positive development she wants to highlight from this year’s season. Working with nature can have lots of ups and downs, she said, which is something she informed monitors of before the plovers hatched in July.

“This is a big loss for us locally, but overall the Great Lakes has had a great season,” Lueck said.

fbelleau@chicagotribune.com