Illustration from a short animation about Monty and Rose by Bill Fogarty/Black Coffee Pictures.
By Bob Dolgan
Monty and Rose are the two beloved piping plovers that surprised the Chicago birding community by settling at busy Montrose Beach to nest and raise their young for three consecutive years. When they first arrived in 2019, the number of their endangered species had diminished to 70 nesting pairs in the Great Lakes region.
One Earth Film Festival has shown two films about Monty & Rose over the past two seasons, and we've had really engaging discussions with the filmmaker Bob Dolgan (see below for info on how to watch the films and recorded discussions), which have inspired many people to learn about and get involved in bird conservation. After Monty died recently after making the spring migration back to Northern Illinois, and after Rose did not return, we reached out to Bob for his thoughts and those of others in the birding community.
Most of Chicago’s Plover Watch volunteers knew how extraordinary it was to have even one summer with piping plovers Monty and Rose. The fleeting nature of it—a species down to only 70 pairs, and one pair nesting on the busiest beach in Chicago—was why it was so special. Their presence rallied thousands of people and introduced untold numbers to piping plovers and birding.
Here’s a clip from “Monty and Rose 2: The World of Monty and Rose,” an official selection of the One Earth Film Festival. This was from 2019, before Monty was a household name, before we knew what would happen in the years to follow. The clip shows the kind of thing Monty did routinely to protect his young, and I hope to see a piping plover chasing off predators in Chicago someday again.
Now, Monty has passed, and the reactions have been among the most positive things to come out of the last month or so. Here's a sampling of comments on social media. They sum up my feelings better than I ever could myself.
Heather Kenny: He was truly a living symbol of the city motto, “urbs in orto.” Nature is everywhere, even in cities, and protecting and cultivating it makes a big difference—even when it’s just two birds.
Raed Mansour: When anything is vulnerable, we all are. Protecting them protected so much more. It’s a lesson I hope we never forget that applies to nature, animals and each other.
Maggie Hendricks: It's that Chicago rallied to keep these rare birds safe. Chicago listened to scientists and birders and did everything to keep these sweet birds safe. To be as cheesy as possible, it showed me what Chicago is capable of.
Carl Armstrong: Hope. Joy. A lot of joy. A brighter future. Proof that ordinary individuals change outcomes. And as others have mentioned, a few plover-colored specks of light set against a vast, black void.
Image of Monty by Gordon Garcia
Dustin: I worked at Kayak Chicago at Montrose the year he arrived and we’d get to see [Monty] every day. By the end of the summer he felt like a close friend. Every morning we were some of the first ones on the beach and we’d watch him as we set up our boats. Everyone was delighted to see him.
Ty: A sign of hope in community. That for just once in our lives we’ll do whatever it takes to let this adorable species live on.
Carolyn Torgersen: Adoration for the pair reached far beyond Chicago. I shared Monty, Rose + baby chicks updates with family and friends across the country who came to love them as much as I did. Their story was a little piece of goodness during some really dark times.
As you can see from the comments above, Monty made a lasting impact.
While I was at the Indiana Dunes Birding Festival the weekend Monty passed away, I learned something about one of Monty’s younger half-sisters, also fathered by “Yogi” in Silver Lake State Park, Mich., where Monty originally hatched. The plover has taken up residence on an island in Michigan: Fisherman’s Island. And she has found a mate there, a place where piping plovers haven’t been in years.
Then something else extraordinary happened. One of Monty and Rose’s 2021 chicks, Imani, who we hadn’t heard from since last summer, showed up at a beach in Duluth, Minn., last week. A few days later, he was back at his old hatching grounds of Montrose Beach. Naturally thoughts turned to whether Imani would find a female and re-settle at Montrose. Just the possibility is a comfort for those who have celebrated the return of piping plovers to Chicago shores these past few years.
Bob Dolgan is a birder, filmmaker, writer, and consultant who has made two documentaries about Chicago’s endangered Piping Plovers. You can learn more about his work at www.turnstoneimpact.com.
Watch ‘Monty and Rose 1’ for $1.99: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/montyandrose1
See One Earth Film Fest Post-Film Discussion with Bob Dolgan: https://vimeo.com/397709465
Watch ‘Monty and Rose 2’ for $5: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/mr2
See One Earth Film Fest Post-Film Discussion with Bob Dolgan: https://vimeo.com/701792370/ebdf3f61ad