A local celebrity appeared at Montrose Beach on Tuesday.
Imani, son of Chicago’s beloved piping plovers Monty and Rose, was spotted at 6:30 p.m. 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.
A local birder took a photo that showed distinctive silver, purple and orange bands on the visitor’s legs, according to Tamima Itani, lead volunteer coordinator for Chicago Piping Plovers.
“It’s definitely Imani,” Itani said.
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.
“It will really depend on whether a female shows up,” said Itani. If Imani finds a mate, he’s likely to make Montrose Beach his summer home. Otherwise, he’s expected to do what he did last year: keep moving, presumably on the lookout for a life partner.
Piping plovers tend to be faithful to successful mates and locations, which adds to the challenge. There are about 70 breeding pairs of piping plovers in the Great Lakes region, many of them paired up, according to Itani.
That leaves about 150 chicks that hatched last year and will be looking for mates.
Great Lakes piping plovers, which were down to 13 breeding pairs in 1990, continue to face threats from habitat loss, humans and severe storms. But there is also growing awareness of their plight, as reflected by the massive volunteer monitoring effort that helped keep Rose and Monty safe when they started nesting at Montrose Beach in 2019.
The pair were the first piping plovers to successfully nest in Chicago in decades. Monty died from a fungal respiratory infection last year, and Rose went missing.
Their love story landed them on T-shirts, posters and beer cans, and in two documentary films.
As for the next chapter, Chicago piping plover lovers are in wait-and-see mode, with all eyes on Imani, Rose and Monty’s only known surviving chick.
“Fingers crossed,” said Itani.
