“Tiny fluff balls on toothpicks” with big eyes.
That’s how one volunteer described the four newly hatched piping plover chicks born to Imani and Searocket at Montrose Beach.
“They walk around and then they tumble and get right back up,” said Tamima Itani, lead volunteer coordinator with the Chicago Piping Plovers.
Bird experts are hoping the four chicks — three of which hatched Sunday and a fourth Monday morning — find their footing, and not just for themselves and their protective parents.
“I think it’s a really good, hopeful step forward for piping plovers in the Great Lakes region.” said Matt Igleski, executive director of the Chicago Bird Alliance. “It’s something we’ve been waiting for for the last couple of years.”
Adding to the good news for the endangered birds, the new hatchlings come just days after another trio of plovers hatched in Waukegan.
Imani’s and Searocket’s brood hatched roughly a month after the first egg was found in a protected area of Montrose Beach.
Itani said the past few weeks have been nerve-wracking over worries that stormy weather might damage the eggs or disrupt the nest.
“It’s a huge relief,” Itani said. “It’s really nice to see that they made it, that they all have hatched.”
Imani and Searocket keep the chicks under their wings for warmth, when the chicks are not stumbling around the protected area of the beach trying to learn how to walk.
When news broke of the chicks’ arrivals, an increased number of bird enthusiasts, equipped with binoculars and cameras, made their way to the beach, to catch a glimpse of the new family, Itani said.
While bird experts understand the excitement seeing the new chicks, they ask spectators not to enter the protected area or interfere with the plovers’ feeding.
The Chicago Park District asks that beach visitors help keep the newly hatched chicks, the nest and remaining egg safe by respecting closed-area boundaries, keeping dogs on leashes and taking trash with them when they leave.
Experts say trash left on the beach can attract seagulls, which pose a threat to plovers. Flying kites at the beach is also discouraged as plovers may interpret the object as a predator.
There are 70 to 80 breeding pairs of plovers in the Great Lakes region every year, with the vast majority of those in Michigan, according to Igleski.
“Having not only one but two pairs of plovers with young right now in Illinois is very significant,” Igleski said.
Imani was hatched at Montrose Beach in 2021, an offspring of the piping plovers Monty and Rose. Searocket, a captive-reared chick, was released at Montrose Beach in July 2023.
Igleski noted Searocket was brought from Michigan and released from Montrose in hopes the plover would come back.
“This kind of experiment of releasing chicks in different areas around the Great Lakes seems to have worked, at least for now,” Igleski said. “It seems like a strategy that might be used more often going forward since that seemed to be a real winner in this case.”
Piping plovers had disappeared from Illinois beaches around 1955, and the first chicks since then hatched in 2019 at Montrose Beach. The bird species is still considered endangered in the Great Lakes region.
Chicks hatch throughout June and into July, according to Great Lakes Piping Plovers.
Itani called on enthusiasts to be mindful of the chicks’ safety and enjoy them while they’re here.
“It is very special that they’re here with us in Chicago and Waukegan,” Itani said. “Enjoy them, they grow fast.”
