This week we celebrate the birthday of a famous local celebrity: Monty, who was born—or more accurately stated, hatched—on the fourth of June 2017.
If you know your birds—and I hope you do—you may remember that Monty is a Great Lakes Piping Plover who, along with his mate Rose, became the first pair of this endangered species to nest at Chicago’s Montrose beach in 2019 after a long 70-year absence. Their love story captured the imagination of the entire region and demonstrated how humans can work with wildlife to ensure their survival.
Sadly, Monty died in 2022, and Rose has never been seen again. But one of their sons, Imani, returned from his first migration to the Chicago shore that same year. Through that summer we watched as Imani waited patiently for a partner. But no one arrived. He returned in 2023, but again no eligible female plovers were to be seen.
The following year, however, he finally hooks up with Sea Rocket, a captive plover that had been released at Montrose the previous year. Together they hatched a full clutch of eggs, but only one of the chicks survived.
Now in the summer of 2025, Imani and Sea Rocket are back and there is another nest. And as before—since the time of Monty and Rose—these fragile little birds with big plans are watched over by an army of human volunteers. And so, the story of Monty and Rose continues as we watch and wait.
