Second piping plover chick at Montrose Beach dies

A second of the four piping plover chicks at Montrose Beach has died, just days after the plumed family lost its first chick.

Monitors observed one of three surviving chicks in Imani and Sea Rocket's nest behaving lethargic and struggling late Thursday, according to a statement from the Chicago Piping Plovers., a volunteer organization dedicated to protecting the endangered birds.

With permission from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the chick was taken to Lincoln Park Zoo, the organization said. The chick showed no signs of external or internal injuries or illness. It was given oxygen and fluids and kept warm, but died during the night.

The death of the first chick was announced Wednesday. Monitors found that chick dead that day on the protected beach. A growth was noted on the side of its neck, and the chick was taken to Lincoln Park Zoo for a necropsy.

"We mourn the passing of these two chicks who had endeared themselves to us for the ten short days they were with us," the organization said.

The surviving chicks have been examined by a veterinarian and banded, the organization said. Neither exhibited any signs of illness or injury. A team of biologists from several agencies collected the two chicks Friday morning for examination and later released them.

They have since been observed roaming the beach with one parent and feeding, the organization said.

Imani and Sea Rocket’s four eggs hatched June 30 and July 1, about a month after their first egg was found in a protected area of Montrose Beach.

Imani was hatched at Montrose Beach in 2021 to piping plovers Monty and Rose. Sea Rocket was a captive-reared chick released at the beach in July 2023.

Montrose Beach became a protected sanctuary in 2019, the same year the first piping plover chicks hatched in Illinois since they disappeared across the state in 1955.

The Great Lakes population of piping plovers is considered endangered, with 75 to 80 nesting pairs in the Great Lakes area, according to the U.S. National Park Service.