In 2019, the legend of Montrose Beach’s adorable little snowy plover taking down unscrupulous corporate entertainment lives on.
The Sun-Times cover shot with the headline “LITTLE BIRDS VS BIG FESTIVAL” was also used in Bob Dolgan’s film “Monty and Rose.”
While it’s true that JAM Productions canceled its music festival, Manby on the Beach, which was expected to draw 20,000 people, the reason for the cancellation had less to do with Monty & Rose in Montrose and more to do with Lake Michigan’s near record water levels in 2019.
I thought the widespread tale of the American plover would end with a David vs. Goliath victory. But five years later, this small, stocky shorebird and its story continue to make history.
Dorgan has produced two documentaries about the bird. Tamima Itani, head of Montrose’s Plover volunteers, has written two children’s books and helped raise $12,000. Naming the Plover continues to generate a lot of interest.
Brad Semel, an endangered species recovery specialist with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, believes this is the first time since 1955, when two pairs of plovers successfully nested in Illinois.
Three of the four chicks that hatched in Waukegan fledged on July 19. On Tuesday, one of the four surviving chicks in Montrose fledged.
“This beautiful bird with a beautiful song [is] “They forage in the unusual Panne Marshes and windswept sand dunes, and literally the third largest city in the country sits beyond,” Semel explains. “It’s such a contrast that people seem to be drawn to what’s going on there. And then, 30 miles to the north, on an isolated beach, with a faint horizon still visible, these birds face the same threats of peregrine falcons, botulism, and storms, but because it’s a private beach with no public access, few people see it directly. It’s all happening ‘behind closed doors,’ but it’s happening nonetheless. So there’s that contrast again.”
The Great Lakes’ snowy plovers were placed on the endangered species list in 1984. This year, the Great Lakes population produced the most nesting pairs (81) since it was placed on the list, and at least Monty and Rose get a lot of credit for that. The eastern population is on the endangered species list.
Interest in the endangered American plover exploded when Monty and Rose mated on Montrose Beach in 2019, and various couples have since attempted nesting in Montrose.
The commotion began when Monty and Rose tried to set up shop in a Waukegan parking lot in 2018. Semen said it was “a terrible place for drag racing, but the city didn’t respond by sealing off the area.”
A lot has changed quickly. This year, the city of Waukegan designated the plovers its city bird, a day before they were due to return to its closed-off beaches. In 2019, Monty and Rose nested in Montrose, the first in Cook County since 1948.
And a true community was born.
“The community, which is made up of volunteers, birdwatchers, photographers, government officials, media personnel and visitors, is diverse on many levels, with people from different walks of life, professions, income levels, sexual orientations, nationalities and places of residence,” Itani said in an email.
She noted that Monty and Rose’s son, Nish, who hatched in Montrose in 2020, will nest in Ohio in 2021, marking the first time they have nested there in 81 years. Their son, Imani, who hatched in 2021, will return to Montrose in 2022 and 2023, “becoming the most famous bachelor on Lake Michigan’s shoreline and owning some of the most expensive and desirable lakefront real estate,” Itani said.
This spring, Imani found a mate in Sea Rocket, and four chicks have hatched, including one that survived and has just fledged.
Montrose has become a living education center where people ask, “What are you looking at?”
Semen said one man flew into O’Hare for a conference last week and came to Montrose because he heard the plovers were there. Birdwatchers come from all over the world — “one came from England the other day,” he said — and he often hears languages being spoken that he doesn’t understand.
“Out-of-town visitors regularly stop by Montrose to see the plovers,” Itani said in an email. “People travel from the suburbs into the city to see the plovers.”
Bird watching at Montrose Beach on Friday.
Tyler Pasiak Lariviere/The Sun-Times
People offer binoculars to those who don’t have them. Monitors in orange shirts answer questions. There’s a near-constant stream of news on social media. Itani said in an email that people from as far away as Britain sent condolences when Monty dies in 2022, and that this year visitors came from as far away as Turkey.
Montrose deserves some credit as well.
“This is a wonderful combination of beautiful dunes, rare plants and the caretakers who look after them,” Semen said. “Since the fencing was put up for the snowy plovers, all these birds (the great sandpiper, the curlew, the curlew, the burrowing owl) have found a wonderful spot. A variety of rare birds come and find this resting spot.”
Colorful beach umbrellas provide protection for beachgoers at Montrose Beach.
Montrose is also a major center of Chicago fishing, soccer, and other recreational activities, and is home to the third-largest number of bird species east of the Mississippi.
“Montrose makes plovers accessible and easy to observe,” Itani said in an email. “Everyone who sees a piping plovers chick for the first time through the scope has a smile on their face. These plovers are banded so we can track them as they migrate across the U.S. We also create a strong connection to each individual plovers by tracking which plovers they mate with and who their parents and grandparents are. Naming the plovers has been a great help and has really brought the birds closer to us.”
I was worried that the focus on the plover would take away vitality from other conservation efforts, but instead the plover has gained broader public support.
“The Montrose plover has become a catch-all species that protects many other species,” Itani said in an email. “Now the shorebirds have a place to perch, rest, and refuel on a protected shoreline without being chased away by humans. Hopefully the interest in the plover will spark broader interest. In Chicago specifically, there are at least two pressing issues that need to be addressed urgently: 1) the problem of bird collisions with glass, and 2) the problem of bird deaths from rodenticides. Chicago’s city government has not demonstrated the level of commitment and action through ordinances that other cities have shown. [New York City].”
Mate piping plover Rose, left, and Monty walk near an area marked off for endangered species on Northside Montrose Beach on the morning of Wednesday, April 28, 2021. | Ashley Regine-Garcia/Sun-Times
Ashley Lesin/Sun-Times files
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