First Females return 4-16

The first females returned to Sleeping Bear Dunes. Two females and one male were resting near each other in the cobble, sheltering from the cold wind.

One of the two females was featured in a recent blog post ("Heading North!"). Of,bY:X,B ("by-Bee") spent her winter in Pinellas county, FL and was last reported on Dauphin Island, AL on March 28th. She's likely to head across the Manitou passage to her usual nesting spot near the dock on North Manitou Island soon.

The other newly-returned female is Of,BG;X,L ("BiG-L"). She spent her winter on St. Catherine's Island off the coast of Georgia. She nested on North Manitou Island in 2021, but bred near the south boundary of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in 2019 and 2020. It will be interesting to see where she settles this summer. Here she is sitting near a male - Of,GO:X,O ("GOO") who nested successfully just down the beach in 2021.