(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Birders say Monty and Rose — Chicago’s pair of piping plovers — are now both settled in at their winter homes in the south.
The whole family has left Montrose Beach. Both chicks are gone, presumably headed south.
“I’m keeping my fingers crossed and hopefully we’ll hear about their whereabouts from folks in the Southern states,” Tamima Itani, the coordinator of the volunteers who watched over the plovers’ nest at Montrose Beach, said Thursday.
She said Rose was spotted on Wednesday in Florida — at Anclote Key, the preserve where she’s spent three previous winters.
Monty arrived in Galveston, Texas, 11 days ago.
Itani says the couple winter separately — in this case, hundreds of miles apart.
“I hear that it’s healthy for relationships for partners to spend time apart. So, I’m just guessing that that’s what they’re doing.”
The hope is that Chicago will see Monty and Rose reunited in late April.