How ‘love story' between piping plovers Monty and Rose unfolded in Chicago — and how their legacy lives on

Chicago Tribune

15-05-2025

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, 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 their story unfolded along the Lake Michigan coast — and how their legacy lives on still.
It was a busy first summer for the piping plovers in Chicago, 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.
Monty and Rose, along with their two successfully fledged chicks left Montrose Beach at the end of the summer. Banners with 'Thank you, Chicago!' were up near the birds' summer home, and the fenced-off area was again open to the public.
The rest of the chicks' lives may be a mystery: The siblings were never banded so they won't be easily tracked now that they're gone.
But, said Carl Giometti, of the Chicago Ornithological Society, 'Who knows? Maybe next year we'll see an unbanded plover running around Montrose.'
After wintering far away from Lake Michigan, Monty and Rose, the federally endangered piping plovers who fledged two chicks last summer on Montrose Beach, have each flown across the country to end up together again on the same patch of Chicago sand.
This year, the plovers — now weighing about a half stick of butter each — arrived on the same day, hours apart, and settled on an empty beach. They got to work fledging three chicks, a big deal for small birds once down to about a dozen nesting pairs.
Chicago naturalist and longtime Montrose Beach Dunes steward Leslie Borns said the birds' return was validation of what the stewardship program and the Park District have been able to accomplish.
'To think that Monty and Rose survived the winter and their long spring migration and returned to this one place along the entire Lake Michigan coast!' Borns said in an email. 'I am over the moon.'
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.
Word began to spread about their long-awaited return.
'It's like your kids coming back from college,' said Tamima Itani, of the Illinois Ornithological Society and a leader in Chicago's plover effort.
But tragedy struck when Monty died.
'He was observed gasping for air before dropping and passing away,' Itani said. 'Monty and Rose captured our hearts in a way very few beings do. Monty will be very sorely missed.'
A local celebrity appeared at Montrose Beach.
Imani, son of Chicago's beloved piping plovers Monty and Rose, was spotted 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 Itani.
'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.
Chicago's lovebird has returned. Imani, son of the city's cherished piping plovers Monty and Rose, returned to the sands of Lake Michigan.
A birder spotted him at the Montrose Beach Dunes, a 15.9-acre protected natural area at the southernmost point of the beach. Last summer, Imani also returned to the beach in late April 25.
'I wasn't expecting him to be back precisely on the 25th, it's just that impressive,' Itani said. 'And in typical Imani fashion, he didn't waste any time chasing killdeer off his turf.'
Birdwatchers saw the tiny bird in a standoff with one of the larger plovers, after which the killdeer flew away. Imani reclaimed his summer home — and he's was flourishing.
A beloved Chicago mom celebrated a special day over the weekend with a return to Montrose Beach.
Her name is Searocket and she is partner and co-parent to Imani — the piping plover son of local celebrity pair Monty and Rose — who had returned to his summering spot on Montrose Beach three weeks ago and anxiously awaited her return. Finally, she joined him, just in time for their second nesting season.
'We're just so excited that Searocket is back. Happy Mother's Day to her,' Itani said. 'We're so glad to have a mother back in our midst.'
The female plover comes home to competitive piping plover dating scene: In addition to Imani, Montrose has welcomed 2-year-old Pippin, a returning male from Green Bay, Wisconsin, and two other males, originally from Michigan, that were passing by