A newly hatched piping plover chick snuggles up to its parent at Montrose Beach, June 30, 2024. Parents Imani and Searocket are still incubating three more eggs. (Courtesy Chicago Piping Plover Watch)

Barely two weeks after Chicagoans celebrated the arrival of four endangered piping plover chicks at Montrose Beach in summer 2024, three of the hatchlings were dead.

It was a devastating turn of events, particularly for the dedicated brigade of volunteer plover monitors. The cause of those deaths, WTTW News has learned, comes down to the mercurial nature of Nature.

“Failure to thrive” was determined as the official cause of death following necropsies conducted by staff at the Lincoln Park Zoo, according to Brad Semel, endangered species specialist with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

That failure, Semel said, was likely due to a stretch of bad weather in the days after the chicks hatched on June 30 and July 1. 

Plover chicks are what’s known as “precocial,” meaning they start running around and foraging on their own within hours of hatching. But the little ones aren’t able to regulate their temperature, so they rely on their parents to keep them warm.

Tamima Itani, lead plover monitor, noted that in their early days, the chicks “spent lengthy periods of time sheltering under Mom (Searocket) or Dad (Imani) instead of feeding.” 

“Likely they just couldn’t surpass the energetic challenges that faced them,” Semel said.

While ultimately only one of the Montrose chicks — Nagamo — survived, all three that hatched at Illinois Beach State Park in Waukegan fledged and departed on their first migration, leading Semel to suspect more may have been at play at Montrose than simply weather conditions.

The Chicago plovers were initially foraging in a more sterile area of Montrose Beach that may have had fewer food resources, he said. 

A detailed study of the feces and insect samples that he collected from the beach could reveal differences between Montrose and other plover sites, Semel added.

Though it’s “off-season” for plovers in the north, conservationists are keeping a close eye on the birds’ winter sites in the southern U.S., where hurricanes struck a number of beaches favored by plovers. 

The Great Lakes Piping Plover Recovery Effort has been sharing news of southern sightings on its Facebook page. Among those confirmed to have survived Hurricane Milton: Waukegan’s Pepper, a first-time dad who raised three chicks this year with partner Blaze. 

Contact Patty Wetli: @pattywetli | (773) 509-5623 |  [email protected]