Traverse, Northern Michigan’s – July 2019

80 MyNorth.com

HEAD TO THE MANITOUS. Explore these

wild islands at MyNorth.com/themanitous

The Great Lakes piping plover population was at a low

of only 13 nesting pairs in the 1980s. With conserva-

tion efforts (involving professionals at Sleeping Bear

Dunes National Lakeshore, US Fish and Wildlife Service,

Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the Uni-

versity of Minnesota and the University of Michigan

Biological Station), that number has rebounded to

around 70 nesting pairs today. Learn more about this

resilient Great Lakes bird at greatlakespipingplover.org.

Occasionally, a piping plover nest will be abandoned or

in danger of being washed out by waves. Monitors follow

protocols to salvage these eggs for transport to the

University of Michigan’s Biological Station near Pellston,

Michigan. There, eggs are incubated and hatched and

the chicks cared for by personnel from the Detroit Zoo.

If a bird wears a “split band” (two colors on one band),

they were hatched at the biological station. Since this

practice began in 1992, the station has successfully

hatched dozens of eggs.