(WBBM Newsradio) -- Monty and Rose — the two endangered piping plovers at Montrose Beach — were dealt a setback overnight in their family plans.
Birders were expecting Monty and Rose’s four eggs to hatch next week, but now the nest is bare.
The coordinator of the volunteers who take turns watching over the two piping plovers, Tamima Itani, says she looked at the video from the USDA surveillance camera that records motion near the nest.
“And the pictures showed a skunk in the area. It was clear that the skunk had gotten to the nest,” Itani said.
There is also encouraging news: “A couple birders stopped by and said, ‘Monty and Rose are in the corner over there, and we saw them courting and ‘scraping.’
Scraping basically means that they’re digging in the sand to create a new nest.”
Itani on Thursday said the state department of natural resources is working on a larger exclosure for the new nest so that skunks and raccoons won’t be able to reach in as easily.
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