Their story was filled with drama, anchored by hope and, depending on who you asked, one ultimately about love.
But it was never going to last forever.
Monty, one half of Chicago’s endangered Great Lakes piping plover pair, died on May 13, 2022, at Montrose Beach. It was his fourth summer in the North Side sand. He was still waiting on the return of his mate, Rose.
The endangered shorebird pair chose Montrose Beach as their summer nesting spot three years ago, going on to break records, fledge chicks and serve as symbols for a city as hopeful and hardscrabble as two birds, individually weighing less than a stick of butter, who picked an urban beach to save their species.
“It’s a comeback story because they went way down in population and then they came back. It’s a great story of conservation,” said Patricia O’Donnell, a monitor for the plovers. “But I got to tell you — it’s a love story.”
Here’s how that story has unfolded along the Lake Michigan coast.
June 2019: Festival creates waves between birders and music fans
The fate of two federally endangered piping plovers, who chose to nest at Montrose Beach, is in question as a music festival plans to set up on that same spot. “Even under the best conditions, life is very perilous for a little plover chick.”
July 2019: 3 plover chicks hatch as music fest floats plan to move
The chicks mark a major victory for plover pair Monty and Rose, as well as preservation efforts in Chicago. It’s the first time one of the birds has hatched in Cook County in more than 60 years. Meanwhile, the music festival pitches plans to move its stages away from the nesting area.
July 2019: Inside the race to save the endangered piping plover from tourists and a music festival escalates
After 33 years on the endangered list, only 73 pairs is glacial progress, and the goal for complete recovery is modest — a mere 150 pairs. That’s for all of the Great Lakes.
So, these allies, they sweat every bird.
August 2019: Plover and out: The summer stars of Montrose Beach head south for the winter
After flying into Chicago for the summer — where they weathered a flooded home and 4th of July fireworks, dodged volleyball players and hungry dogs, chased away a great blue heron, upended a music festival and even faced the death of one of their own — the piping plovers have left the beach.
Now, birders are feeling like empty-nesters.
April 2020: Season’s first sightings raise hopes for return of Monty and Rose, inspire creative watch plans amid pandemic
Experts are preparing and adjusting for a plover summer during the pandemic. Everyone from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Chicago Park District to the Lincoln Park Zoo and local enthusiasts are anticipating the return of two little birds.
May 2020: Monty and Rose don’t waste any time as eggs already spotted in their Montrose Beach nest
Monty and Rose appeared in early May at the North Side beach, raising hopes of more plover chicks as they engaged in, as birders say, “courtship behavior.”
By Sunday morning, there were three eggs in the plovers’ nest. A fourth, likely completing the clutch, is expected soon.
June 2020: ‘It’s not just bird-watching, it’s like you’re guarding an entire line of descendants’
The surviving chicks — often referred to as “poof balls” by birders — have a few weeks of dodging predators and eating as much as possible before they’ll fly and make the second act of Monty and Rose’s species-saving effort.
Aug. 2020: Family summered on Montrose Beach ‘like they owned the place’
Monty and Rose nested earlier this season in a more secluded spot that withstood the season’s rockiest storms. By the end of July, their three chicks were hanging out at Montrose without supervision. They had lost their fluff, and like their parents when they first met, were still missing their feathered collars.
April 2021: Park District expands habitat at Montrose Beach ahead of expected return of Monty and Rose
After two seasons of summering on Chicago’s North Side, Monty and Rose may be flying back to an upgraded summer home.
The Chicago Park District has signed off on a habitat expansion of the Montrose dunes natural area, part of the beach where a pair of endangered Great Lakes piping plovers escaped a music festival, lost a clutch of eggs, fought off other birds and successfully fledged chicks two summers in a row.
April 2021: A great comeback and conservation story — ‘but I got to tell you — it’s a love story’
Chicago’s preeminent plovers are together again, settling in for their third summer of saving their species at Montrose Beach along the Lake Michigan coast.
Monty and Rose, the endangered Great Lakes piping plovers who became the first pair to nest successfully in Chicago in decades, collectively traveled more than 2,000 miles to make it back to Chicago just one day apart.
June 2021: Monty and Rose chick survives migration and becomes first piping plover to nest in Ohio in more than 80 years
Like father, like chick.
The Great Lakes piping plovers who amassed a series of successes since becoming the first of the endangered shorebirds to nest in Chicago in decades can add another feather to their caps — one of last year’s offspring survived migration and is nesting in Ohio.
July 2021: Monty and Rose did it again: Chicks hatch after skunk incursion
Not the threat of a music festival, or Fourth of July fireworks, or rogue dogs and volleyballs, or high lake levels and gnarly storms — not even a skunk — could stop Chicago’s Great Lakes piping plovers from propagating.
The third round of Monty and Rose’s chicks have started hatching on Montrose Beach, a welcome sight for followers of the endangered shorebirds after their three resilient years nesting in North Side sand — and after the first clutch of eggs was devoured.
July 2021: Last piping plover egg hatches with help at Lincoln Park Zoo
The final of four eggs laid by the two endangered Great Lakes piping plovers, who became the first pair to nest successfully in Chicago in decades, hatched Friday at the Lincoln Park Zoo. The egg was brought to the zoo after the first three eggs hatched under the bird parents’ care.
July 2021: Imani and Siewka are the latest members of the Montrose Beach family
The two surviving chicks of endangered Great Lakes piping plovers Monty and Rose may soon be flying south. But some of the birders who kept watch over them this summer gathered at Montrose Beach to wish them luck with their proper names before they’re gone.
Imani and Siewka will be the latest plovers to look for as part of the Montrose family, birding and conservation groups announced Friday night in front of the cordoned-off dunes habitat where Monty and Rose nested for their third summer.
Aug. 2021: Another plover summer comes to a close as Monty and Rose fly south for the winter
Even before the leaves lose their green and the nights cool and days shorten, there’s a sure sign another summer is coming to an end: the plovers have left the beach.
Monty and Rose, the Great Lakes piping plovers who three years ago became the first of the endangered shorebirds to nest successfully in Chicago in decades, have flown south after another Montrose Beach summer.
April 2022: Monty returns to Montrose Beach for his 4th summer. Now, where’s Rose?
Word began to spread about their long-awaited return.
He hadn’t been spotted at his Texas home and the winds were right for travel. She was known to take off around the same time from her Florida island, sometimes arriving before him. Wishes of safe flights came in from across the country as Chicagoans itching to catch an early sight made plans to head to the beach.
By April 24, Monty, the Great Lakes piping plover, was back in Chicago.
May 2022: Monty the beloved piping plover dies, authorities say, weeks after return to Chicago
“It is with great sadness that we confirm the passing of Monty, one of the Montrose Beach Piping Plovers,” said Irene Tostado, of the Chicago Park District, said on Friday, May 13.
“Monty and Rose captured our hearts in a way very few beings do,” Tamima Itani, of the Chicago Piping Plovers, shared more details, said. “Monty will be very sorely missed.”
Fans celebrate Monty and Rose, the piping plovers who aided conservation and brought Chicagoans together
Birders, biologists, conservationists and those who happened to be swept up in the tale of two little birds gathered this week at Montrose Beach to mark the end of one story — while another was just beginning.
The crowd gathered Wednesday, May 25 to celebrate the lives of Monty and Rose, the endangered piping plovers who three summers ago became the first pair to nest successfully in Chicago in decades.
August 2022: In a win for endangered piping plovers, the Great Lakes has record breeding season
Monty and Rose, who achieved local fame in 2019 as the first federally endangered piping plovers to raise a family in Chicago in almost 60 years, are gone from the North Side beach where they spent three summers.
But the hope that the jaunty little shorebirds sparked for their species continues to grow.
The Great Lakes Piping Plover Conservation Team has announced a record-breaking 2022 breeding season, with 149 wild chicks reaching the fledgling — or flying — stage, the most since official counts began in 1984.
April 2023: Imani, son of beloved piping plovers Rose and Monty, is back in Chicago and looking for love
Imani, son of Chicago’s beloved piping plovers Monty and Rose, was spotted on April 25 on a quiet stretch of sand favored by shorebirds. He ate, took a bath at sunset, preened his white and dove-gray feathers, and fed some more.
What this means for piping plovers, which are endangered in the Great Lakes region, and for Imani, who spent six lonely weeks at Montrose Beach last summer, still isn’t clear. Our diminutive hero, at a little more than a year and a half, is old enough for a mate, but there are only about 250 piping plovers summering around the Great Lakes, and many are already paired off.
