Great expectations: Piping Plovers stir high hopes

The Great Lakes Piping Plover preview edition.

If you have been to Great Lakes beaches in April, you know they aren’t exactly the sun-drenched pink sands of Harbour Island in the Bahamas.

The wind is whipping, and the threat of sleet and snow is ever-present (in fact northern Michigan is just now recovering from a historically awful ice storm). On some days, the beach, the sky, the trees, and the water all appear to be the same shade of gray.

Enter Stephanie Schubel of the Great Lakes Piping Plover Conservation Team. Her job is to greet the first Piping Plovers as they arrive on Great Lakes beaches from the southern wintering grounds. It’s no small task to find a tiny shorebird on beaches that can be several miles long or more.

“I think about when I last saw [the birds] at the sites and then I start checking,” Schubel says. “It’s generally a little slower up here because it’s colder. The older adults don’t mind as much and will show up in the snow sometimes.”

It can be a matter of seeing a few footprints in the sand, or detecting a single plover call note, or “pipping” sound. Sometimes it’s just a feeling that a plover is present.

"I will have a sense and think ‘I bet they’re here’ and then see them,” Schubel says. “Like Big O at Sturgeon Bay, he has blue, green, and orange [leg] bands. He is super sneaky. Sometimes I’ll be walking back [without seeing him] and there he is.”

Schubel covers the beaches that don’t get quite as much attention as places like Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. These are locales in Michigan with names like Wilderness State Park, Pointe-aux-Chenes, Fisherman’s Island, and Cross Village.

Schubel’s efforts along with her team and myriad volunteer monitors have yielded wonderful results in the last several years. In 2000, there were only 30 pairs breeding on the Great Lakes; now there are 81 pairs, including two in Illinois (one pair in Chicago and one in Waukegan).

Here in Chicago, we are wondering which plovers will show up on our beaches in late April. As you might recall, Imani and Sea Rocket reared one chick, Nagamo, who made it to fledging and headed south last year. Another bird, a male named Pippin, lingered at Montrose Beach for much of summer. It’s impossible to know what will happen, though in a dream scenario Chicago would be home to multiple pairs.

“Pippin obviously had a territory there and was waiting for a female and there just weren’t any extra females around,” Schubel says. “That place can handle three adult plovers, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it could handle two pairs. If not there, you have other spots in the city. Rainbow Beach is really great habitat.”

In Waukegan, there are thoughts toward Pepper and Blaze and their fledglings, Juniper, Sage, and Willow. Maybe one of those birds will also appear in Chicago.

One of Pepper and Blaze’s chicks explores the beach in Waukegan. Photo by Carolyn Lueck.

In the meantime, Schubel will be looking for early signs of nest-scraping. As with most locales, once a scrape is identified, a closed area is established with caution signs and rope fencing. When eggs are found, a wire exclosure is put around the nest. By that time, it might be warm enough to truly enjoy something like a typical day at the beach.

Schubel is upbeat despite the ice storm that left her home damaged and without power. Her efforts start in earnest next week.

"I’m excited to have plovers to think about,” Schubel says. “It will be a bright start. I’m ready and recharged.”