Breaking: Imani's wait for mate may be over

Also, another potential pair arrives in northern Illinois.

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For two long summers, Imani the Piping Plover waited on Montrose Beach for a female to arrive. Now the endangered shorebird may have finally found a mate.

Chicago Piping Plovers announced the news on Instagram on Wednesday:

BREAKING: Sea Rocket (H1) has returned to Montrose and is likely female!!! Also appears both feet are intact. You may recall H1 departed Montrose with fishing line tangled around one foot.

Sea Rocket and two other New York plovers joined Imani on Montrose Beach last summer. Sea Rocket, Prickly Pear, and Wild Indigo—named for native dune plants—had been rescued from a failed nest (due to the loss of a parent) and released in Chicago. Sea Rocket, whose sex was unknown in 2023, hadn’t been seen since leaving the Lake Michigan shoreline with potentially damaging fishing line in tow. She returned on Wednesday—and she is a “she” because of bill coloration—healthy and ready to, ahem, get to know the males at Montrose, particularly Imani.

Imani has been fiercely defending the beach from all-comers, often Killdeer, in the past two seasons. Green Dot arrived earlier this month and presented a challenge to Imani’s reign over Montrose.

Another of the 2023 released birds, Wild Indigo, a likely male, was seen on the wintering grounds of Texas earlier this month. Released birds are likely to return to their release site, so we may still see Wild Indigo soon.

Elsewhere, Lake County (Ill.) Audubon reported that a pair of 2023 releases, Blaze and Pepper, have returned to their shores north of Chicago.

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From an Instagram post:

Pepper is a male and Blaze is a female AND they aren’t related…. AND Pepper has been busy making multiple scrapes around the beach…. AND Blaze has been actively checking them out…. AND …. they were observed mating multiple times throughout the day!

The duo arrived just one day after Waukegan, Illinois, proclaimed the Great Lakes Piping Plover its official city bird.

If either potential pair is successful, they’d become the first Piping Plovers to nest in Illinois since 2021 when Monty and Rose hatched four chicks including Imani. The possibilities are again exciting for plover fans on the southwest shore of Lake Michigan.