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 blue.)

LO Beebee's route - from egg to captive-rearing to release and migration

LO Beebee started her life in an egg at Port Inland, MI in the upper peninsula along Lake Michigan. Her parents, O,-:X,L ("Uncle Larry") and Of,GN:X,Y ("GiNnY") laid the first of their four eggs on May 15th. Plover monitors discovered that GiNNY was missing May 29th. She was likely caught by the Merlin that frequented their territory. Since it takes two adults to incubate a nest, the eggs were abandoned.

However all was not lost. The monitors, under the direction of USFWS and the captive-rearing facility at the University of Michigan Biological Station, (UMBS) rescued the eggs, put them into a portable brooder and drove them to UMBS.

There avian-specialist zoo-keepers under the direction of the Detroit Zoo, incubated the four eggs.

All four hatched into healthy chicks. Plover chicks are precocial, like little chickens. Within hours of hatching they are able to run around and feed themselves.

At captive-rearing they are provided a diet of invertebrates and once they are big enough they are brought into an outdoor cage along Douglas Lake where they can forage on their own.

They grew and after around a month all four were able to fly and were ready to be released.

LO Beebee and her sister were released on July 18th at Vermillion, MI, along Lake Superior. Her two brothers were released at Waukegan, IL.

On August 20th Jenny Barnes found LO Beebee at a busy park in SC, just over the border from Charlotte, NC. LO Beebee was on her way but had stopped in an unusual place. Instead of open shorelines, she found mowed grass, picnic tables, sidewalks, dog walkers and even a young boy who threw a rock at her. It was clearly not the winter territory she should choose.

By August 25th she had moved to a more appropriate winter home on Seabrook Island, SC where she was photographed and reported by Gina Sanders. She has joined many successful and experienced Piping Plovers there.

Perhaps she has now found her lifetime winter territory.