Her return to Montrose Beach may signal the rekindling of the romantic pairing between Imani and Sea Rocket. <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/050526-Piping-Plovers-Montrose-Beach-Colin-Boyle-9246-1024x682.jpg\")
Imani (left) stands nearby as Sea Rocket (right) the piping plover scampers and scavenges along Lake Michigan at Montrose Beach in Uptown on May 5, 2026. Credit: Colin Boyle\/Block Club Chicago<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/050526-Piping-Plovers-Montrose-Beach-Colin-Boyle-8892-1024x682.jpg\")
Sea Rocket the piping plover scampers and scavenges along Lake Michigan at Montrose Beach in Uptown on May 5, 2026. Credit: Colin Boyle\/Block Club Chicago<\/p>\n
For the past two summers, Sea Rocket and Imani have successfully hatched piping plover chicks at Montrose Beach.<\/p>\n
Last summer, the pair had three chicks:\u00a0El, Bean and Ferris<\/a>. Ferris was killed by a hawk, but the other two survived. In 2024, the two made a nest with four chicks<\/a>. All their chicks\u00a0died<\/a>\u00a0except one, named Nagamo,\u00a0despite efforts by local preservationists.<\/p>\n Imani is the son of the piping plover couple\u00a0Monty and Rose<\/a>, who became Chicago celebrities when they began nesting at Montrose Beach in 2019. Monty died at Montrose Beach from a respiratory infection in 2022, while Rose\u2019s whereabouts are unknown.<\/p>\n Pippin<\/a> hatched on Cat Island in Green Bay in 2023 and has been spotted in Chicago the past two summers. He was the first plover spotted<\/a> at their preferred nesting grounds at Montrose Beach this year. Pippin was seen missing a foot that was likely the result of leaving the beach last year with something caught around his leg. He has since relocated to Waukegan Beach, according to Chicago Piping Plovers. <\/p>\n Support Freedom of the Press<\/strong><\/p>\n Independent journalism like this only exists because of readers like you.<\/strong> This World Press Freedom Day, help Block Club raise $20,000<\/strong><\/a> to fuel high-impact investigations that hold Chicago\u2019s institutions and leaders accountable. Make your tax-deductible donation here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UPTOWN \u2014 Another beloved piping plover has returned to Montrose Beach. Sea Rocket, a female bird who was…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":776878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[3425,960,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-776877","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116526740274999884","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776877","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=776877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}