Chicago piping plovers return to Montrose Beach as Imani and Pippin search for mates

Piping plovers return to lakefront looking for love

The piping plovers are back and looking for love. It's another sign of spring in the city.  Kasey Chronis takes us to Montrose Beach with the forecast for this year's matchmaking season. 

CHICAGO - They are a beloved springtime tradition in Chicago, and for another season, the city's resident piping plovers have returned after wintering in warmer climates.

Their arrival is a familiar sign that spring has reached the lakefront.

Imani and Pippin, two piping plovers that previously resided at Montrose Beach, are back this season, while a third unbanded female briefly arrived this week before departing. 

What we know:

Each season, avid bird watchers and amateurs alike hope to see a love story — or two — unfold. After all, you can't spell 'plover' without 'lover,' and two of Chicago's famous feathered locals, Imani and Pippin, are hoping to find just that. 

"What helps a lot with the plovers is that they're a fairly charismatic little bird, they kind of just run around on the beach, pecking around looking for food. They're big enough, easy enough to identify that I think most anybody that comes out is excited to see them," said Matt Igleski, executive director of the Chicago Bird Alliance. 

Igleski joined FOX Chicago at the Montrose Beach Dunes on Wednesday to look for the "bachelors," just days after the piping plovers returned to the Great Lakes from warmer climates — likely near the Gulf. 

While Pippin was somewhere nearby on Wednesday, Imani was easier to spot, even coming within feet of FOX Chicago's camera. 

Imani is the offspring of Monty and Rose, a beloved pair who in 2019 became the first piping plovers in decades to successfully hatch eggs in Chicago. 

After returning to Chicago in the spring of 2022, Monty died following a respiratory infection. Rose did not return that season, and her whereabouts are unknown. 

Imani has continued their legacy, courting a plover named Sea Rocket and raising several chicks on the beach over the past two seasons. But so far this year, Sea Rocket is MIA. 

"Once they've bonded, and they've had a successful nesting season, they will typically be seeking each other out every single season after that. There is a period if one of them shows up and the other doesn't, they might eventually nest with another bird," Igleski explained. 

Sea Rocket might just have a longer journey back. 

In the meantime, Pippin has also returned to the sandy shore, despite a journey from the Gulf area leaving him without a foot.

"It's a pretty perilous journey to go back and forth," Igleski said. 

Still, Igleski says Pippin is adapting well, and the search for love persists.

"He's still looking for a mate, so we're hoping that maybe another plover will show up and mate with him and then we would have two nests at Montrose," Igleski said. 

A third, unbanded female piping plover also landed on the beach this week, but she did not appear to take a liking to either male. According to the Chicago Piping Plovers, she has since moved on.

What's next:

The Chicago Piping Plovers is a joint collaboration between the Chicago Bird Alliance, the Chicago Ornithological Society, and the Illinois Audubon Society. Together, the groups will continue to monitor the movements of the piping plovers at Montrose Beach.

To follow along, visit the Chicago Piping Plovers' Facebook page.