EMPIRE, MI — It\u2019s the start of a moms-only vacation for the Piping Plovers leaving their nests within Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.<\/p>\n
July marks the time of year when piping plover chicks start to fledge and the adults start to \u201cget antsy for migration,\u201d according to the Great Lakes Piping Plover Conservation<\/a>.<\/p>\n The team monitored 82 pairs of Great Lakes piping plovers this season, another new record <\/a>for the fluffy chicks.<\/p>\n Piping Plover females are the first to leave the Great Lakes and head south to their wintering site.<\/p>\n Sleeping Bear\u2019s darling Gabby, or Of,gb:X,Y, already packed her bags and set off. She and her girlfriends are leaving their male partners behind to father the fledglings.<\/p>\n By the end of August the males and most of the chicks will also migrate.<\/p>\n Gabby, had two chicks make it to fledgling age<\/a> this season. She is a mother to 37 plovers. Gabby is widely known as the oldest shorebird ever recorded<\/a> for this endangered piping plover population.<\/p>\n Gabby was seen on July 1 in a location south of her usual nesting site. The conservation team said she often makes a foraging pit stop before heading further south to her favorite winter home at Cumberland Island, Georgia, according to the conservation team.<\/p>\n Fellow Sleeping Bear plovers have followed suit in the following weeks.<\/p>\n The conservation team received reports of one plover in Anclote Key, Florida. <\/p>\n \u201cShe had a rough season this year where she nested at the North Manitou Island Dock and lost her first clutch to coyote egg depredation and her second clutch came into captive-rearing,\u201d the conservation team wrote on Facebook.<\/p>\n The other female from Sleeping Bear was spotted in Fort Pulaski, Georgia. She, too, typically prefers Cumberland Island for her non-breeding season. <\/p>\n \u201cShe is likely taking a foraging pitstop in Fort Pulaski before heading a bit further south. Of,Rb:X,L had a successful season, fledgling all four of her chicks at the Platte Point area of Sleeping Bear Dunes,\u201d according to the conservation team.<\/p>\n As more mommas head south the conservation team welcomes the postcards. If you observe an orange banded or flagged piping plover send your photo and reports to plover@umn.edu.<\/p>\n MORE UNIQUE BIRDS ON THE LAKESHORE: <\/b>These prehistoric-looking birds are acting like teenagers at a mall food court<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EMPIRE, MI — It\u2019s the start of a moms-only vacation for the Piping Plovers leaving their nests within…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":67981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[746,159,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-67980","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114864653775770215","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}