Sleeping Bear’s first captive-raised 2022 plover chick migrates to the coast

A Great Lakes piping plover. | Photo by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

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A Great Lakes piping plover from Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore has been confirmed as the first juvenile of the year to arrive at the species’ wintering grounds in the southern U.S.

The Great Lakes Piping Plover Recovery Effort, a multi-agency network collaborating to increase populations of the federally endangered shorebird, announced the sighting in a recent blog post.

Adding to the excitement over the sighting was the fact that the young bird is a successful fledgling from the Recovery Effort’s captive rearing program, in which eggs from abandoned nests are collected, incubated, hatched and then reared at the University of Michigan Biological Station in Pellston, Mich.

There, avian-specialist zookeepers, coordinated by the Detroit Zoo, oversee the chicks’ growth and development until they can be released back into the wild.

RELATED: How feather dusters, flight pens are helping save baby Great Lakes piping plovers

According to the Recovery Effort, this particular plover was rescued after monitors at Sleeping Bear Dunes noticed that the male plover parent had disappeared – likely caught by a merlin, which is a small falcon that preys on adult plovers.

“Since it takes two plover parents to successfully incubate eggs (they take turns on the nest, allowing their mate to feed) the female soon had to give up on incubating,” the Recovery Effort wrote. “The staff at Sleeping Bear Dunes was ready to spring into action to collect and incubate the eggs, then transfer them to the captive-rearing facility at the University of Michigan Biological Station.”

In early July the bird was released back at Sleeping Bear Dunes, along with two siblings. The trio quickly joined the wild-raised chicks in the area “to feed, rest in the cobble and perfect their flying skills,” the Recovery Effort wrote.

Last seen at the Lakeshore on July 26, the bird was spotted at Topsail Island, North Carolina, on August 2, and was identified by its leg bands.

Nearly all Great Lakes piping plovers are banded, which allows researchers to gather species data and track the whereabouts of individual birds as they migrate between their summer and winter habitats. All 2022 captive-reared chicks have a black band with an orange stripe on their lower right leg.

Great Lakes piping plovers have been on the federal endangered species list since the late 1980s, when habitat loss caused their once-prolific numbers to reach an all-time low of only about a dozen breeding pairs.

Conservation efforts such as the captive rearing program have helped the species rebound to a steady population of roughly 65 to 75 nesting pairs, with Sleeping Bear Dunes providing habitat for anywhere from one-third to half of those birds.

The Great Lakes Piping Plover Recovery Effort captive-raised 11 chicks in 2022.

For more, visit greatlakespipingplover.org.

RELATED:

How feather dusters, flight pens are helping save baby Great Lakes piping plovers

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