Chicago's Piping plovers Imani and Sea Rocket lay first egg of season
The next generation of Montrose Beach's piping plovers are to be on the way.
Chicago's beloved Imani and Sea Rocket laid their first egg of the season on the Montrose Beach dunes shoreline Sunday morning.
Volunteers said they expect Sea Rocket to lay four eggs total.
Along with Imani and Sea Rocket, volunteers said Pippin is also back at Montrose Beach for the season.
It is now peak of migration season.
The Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary attracts tens of thousands of migratory birds every year. It features a Magic Hedge — a 150-yard stretch of shrubs and trees — that attracts an especially large number of species. Piping plovers are found not in the Magic Hedge, but on the beach.
Monty and Rose — named after the beach that is in turn named after the east-west street of which it serves at the mouth — were the first to nest at Montrose Beach in 71 years when they appeared in 2019.
Pippin was hatched in 2023 in Cat Island — located in Lake Superior in the northernmost reaches of Wisconsin.