Monty and Rose get their “big boy” and “big girl” bands!
In the Great Lakes, Piping Plovers are banded soon after hatching. All chicks in a clutch receive the same combination of bands. They are differentiated by color dots or stars, as well as a unique alphanumeric code on one of the bands.
When they return and nest, each Piping Plover is rebanded into their unique adult band combination.
This had not happened yet for Monty and Rose, as their nesting locations have been in heavily frequented areas with a lot of external stress factors.
Brad Semel recently noticed that the weld on Monty’s band was broken, creating a risk that the band would get caught on his leg, or would catch a foreign object.
This morning, Stephanie Schubel and Cindy Mom from the Great Lakes Piping Plovers Recovery Program, in conjunction with Brad Semel, captured Rose first, then Monty, and rebanded them. They each now have a unique band combination and will be easy to identify in the field, even if one were to see only one leg.
Rose’s new band combination is Of,RV:X,B (Left leg: Orange flag on upper left leg, Red band over Violet band on lower left leg, Silver band on upper right leg and Blue band on lower right leg). Rose Violet Blue…
Photo credit Brad Semel
Monty’s new band combination is Of, VO:X,G (Left leg: Orange flag on the upper left leg, Violet band over Orange band on the lower left leg, Silver band on the upper right leg and Green band on the lower right leg). VOGue…
Photo credit Brad Semel
The Orange flag represents Great Lakes Piping Plovers. All banded Chicago Piping Plovers have received a Violet band and future hatches will receive a Violet band as well.
The two monitors on duty this morning were Mary R. Blumer Reed and Nina Wheeler - thank you Mary and Nina for your great support!
Rose and Monty were very calm in Stephanie’s expert hands, and Stephanie made sure to release each one of them with an “I love you.” Thank you Stephanie, Cindy and Brad for all the great work you do, and for caring so much.
Congratulations Monty and Rose on your beautiful new bands!
Cindy (left), Brad and Stephanie. Photo credit Tamima Itani.