Winter Feast
Great Lakes Piping Plovers spend their winter months feasting on nutritious marine worms. Mia Matejschak photographed this great series of LiVY (Of,LV:X,Y - L=Black, V=Violet, Y=Yellow) Pulling up a worm in Pinellas county, FL. LiVY hatched in 2022 at Silver Lake State Park, MI. She's a half-sister to the famous Monty of Montrose Park, Chicago. In 2023 she returned to Silver Lake and nested with her dad, YOGi but they didn't successfully fledge any chicks. In 2024 and 2025 sh
X,L/O:Of,Bb's ("LO Beebee's") Journey
(Most Piping Plovers are "named" for their band colors. In this case : X=metal, L=black, O=orange, Of,=orange flag, B=dark blue, b=light...
Plover Recovery Significantly Enhanced by Generous Donation from an Anonymous Donor!
The Great Lakes Piping Plover Recovery program thrives thanks to the donations of many generous donors to the University of Minnesota...
The 2025 Great Lakes Piping Plover Breeding Season has Begun!
"Obie" (O,b/O:X,- yellow dot) beat the previous record early return date by one day! He was reported by Michael Burkoksi at Kingsville,...
Of,gb:X,Y "gabbY" is now the oldest recorded Great Lakes Piping Plover!
gabbY at Cumberland Island, GA on 1/29/2025 Gabby is now in her 16th year and is officially the oldest Piping Plover ever in the Great...
A Close Call for bYG
Life isn’t easy on the shore. Shorebirds confront many issues daily: predators, dogs, storms, sea-level rise… They also must deal with...
Migration Mystery
Last November Collin Stempien discovered the previously-unknown wintering territory of Of,bY:X,L (bYL or "Bill") at Horn Island, MS....
GabbY is now 15 years old!
On January 25th, 2024 Sarah Tolve was looking for wintering PIping Plovers at Cumberland Island National Seashore in Georgia and found...
biNG and YO YO…A match made at Hilton Head?
Two Great Lakes Piping Plovers were seen in October at Fish Haul Beach on Hilton Head Island, SC. One is a male. (Of,bN:X,G) We call him...
The 2023 Winner of the Plover Race! (as far as we know)
Vince Cavalieri, Wildlife Biologist at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, found Of,bL:X,O (bLO) at her summer home near Glen Haven...
