Heading North!

Great Lakes Piping Plovers are headed north. Any day now the first ones will arrive. We've gotten some recent reports from the south that show that Great Lakes Piping Plovers are on the move.

First is a female that nests on North Manitou Island near the Dock and winters in Pinellas county, Florida. She is often seen in the area of Dauphin Island Alabama along her way north and was reported there by Andrew Haffenden on March 28th.

Another plover that is moving north is this male. He also nests on North Manitou Island in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, but at Dimmick's Point. He is also a Pinellas county winter resident and passes by Phipps Preserve in the Florida Panhandle on his way both north and south. He was reported by Robert Foehring at Phipps Preserve on April 8th.

The third Piping Plover also wintered in Pinellas County, FL and was reported April 8th at Dauphin Island, AL, also by Andrew Haffenden. This plover hatched in 2020 at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore on Michigan Island. It hasn't yet been observed breeding so we don't know where it's heading for the summer. In this photo it's keeping an eye on a threat from the sky.