Monty (June 2017 – May 13, 2022) and Rose were a pair of
piping plover
The piping plover (''Charadrius melodus'') is a small sand-colored, sparrow-sized shorebird that nests and feeds along coastal sand and gravel beaches in North America. The adult has yellow-orange-red legs, a black band across the forehead from e ...
s, who gained local fame in 2019 for being the first pair to successfully breed in Chicago in decades. They belonged to the critically endangered Great Lakes population of piping plovers, which has approximately 70 breeding pairs in total. They annually nested at
Montrose Beach
The beaches in Chicago are an extensive network of waterfront recreational areas operated by the Chicago Park District. The Chicago metropolitan waterfront includes parts of the Lake Michigan shores as well as parts of the banks of the Chi ...
in the summer and nested separately in the winter, with Monty in
Galveston, Texas
Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...
, and Rose in
Anclote Key, Florida. The pair, who had previously tried and failed to nest in a
Waukegan parking lot, later moved to Montrose beach in
Lincoln Park
Lincoln Park is a park along Lake Michigan on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. Named after US President Abraham Lincoln, it is the city's largest public park and stretches for seven miles (11 km) from Grand Avenue (500 N), on the south, ...
. The discovery generated much excitement in the local birding community, with a concert planned to be held on the beach cancelled and over 150 people volunteering to monitor the pair.
Monty and Rose successfully fledged chicks in 2019, 2020, and 2021. They successfully fledged a pair of chicks in 2019, but the chicks were not banded, so their subsequent whereabouts, and whether they successfully nested, is unknown. The following year, they had a clutch of four with three named Hazel, Esperanza and
Nish successfully fledging, and the year after that, a clutch of four, losing two chicks while the survivors, named Imani and Siewka successfully fledged. Nish garnered its own fame when it and its partner, named Nellie, became the first piping plover pair to successfully nest in Ohio in 83 years, having their own successful clutch. Shortly after arriving back in Chicago on May 13, Monty was found stumbling and short of breath, and died that evening of a respiratory infection. The whereabouts and well-being of Rose are currently unknown. Rose did not return to
Montrose in 2022, though her offspring Imani was sighted there in late April 2023. Imani returned to Montrose Point in 2024.
Influence
In honor of the pair, November 18 was declared piping plover day in
Illinois by state governor
J.B. Pritzker.
A 2-part documentary about the pair, titled Monty and Rose and Monty and Rose 2: The World of Monty and Rose respectively, was produced and released by local filmmaker Bob Dolgan, originally for piping plover day.
In 2024, an expansion to the Montrose Dune Natural Area, where Monty and Rose nested, was named the Monty and Rose Wildlife Habitat in their honor.
References
{{Reflist
External links
Chicago Piping Plovers
Individual shorebirds
Individual birds in the United States
Bird duos