10/08/2026
Sad news from Waukegan: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1392365696419849&set=a.500872962235798
We have a heartbreaking update to share from Waukegan.
Over the weekend, we lost all three of Blaze and Pepper’s remaining wild-hatched chicks.
We cannot confirm what happened. Young piping plovers face many natural threats during their vulnerable first weeks of life, including predation, and without witnessing what occurred, we simply cannot know the cause of their loss.
This is an incredibly difficult ending to a nesting season that has meant so much to all of us. Our monitoring team spent countless hours watching over this little family, celebrating every milestone and hoping alongside so many of you that we would see these chicks take flight.
But today, we’re simply going to grieve.
Pepper is still here in Waukegan, although the time may soon come for him to begin his journey south to his wintering grounds in Florida.
Our work on the beach continues, too. We’ll keep watching over our Waukegan captive-reared fledglings and the other piping plovers that stop in Waukegan as they make their way south. We already have the joy of welcoming Chicago fledglings Buddy and Frankie this summer… reminders that this shoreline matters not only to the birds that nest here, but to plovers moving throughout the Great Lakes population.
These three little chicks were watched over and loved by an entire community from the moment they emerged from their eggs. We so hoped we would get to watch them take flight.
Thank you to everyone who shared that hope with us.
📸 Nat Carmichael
Great Lakes Piping Plover, CITY OF WAUKEGAN friendsofwaukeganbeach Audubon Great Lakes, Lake County Forest Preserves, Patty Wetli, Chicago Tribune
