Leelanau’s endangered Piping Plover flock is nearing the end of its short 2024 summer season with both challenges and successes this year. Erica Adams, lead piping plover monitor at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (SBDNL), says the team is focused on the fledging of the last chicks.
“We have one chick that we’re still waiting on to fledge, and then that will be our last guy for the park we’re keeping an eye on in the Platte area. We are also monitoring for the birds that are still sticking around at the park. Mostly it’s fledglings from this season, with a few males here and there and just a handful of females left in the park,” she said.
The majority of the females have already started to migrate south to their wintering grounds. Birds still located in the park are making their way to the southern grounds of Sleeping Bear. Adams said the park expects at least one more captive-reared release in partnership with the University of Michigan Pellston Biological Station and the University of Minnesota.
