Meet the Plovers!
By Mary Birdsong

As the 2024 season approaches, we thought we would review the birds who made the 2023 season happen. Although we lost two very special birds in 2023, we look forward to the return of Ollie (-,O(Rdot):X,L (245), Lola (X,L:O(Rdot),L(223), Yoll O (Ydot),L(292);X,L), Yoob (X,Y;Of,Ob), and Eubie (no bands). May they have safe journeys!

Jerry or BIO or BYO (Of,BY:X,O)

Jerry (or BYO) hatched on North Manitou Island, Michigan is 2015. He first arrived at Gull Point in May of 2016. He was seen there throughout the 2016 season but never found a mate. He returned in 2017 and found a mate, producing the first nest in Pennsylvania since the mid 1950s, making him our pioneer Piping Plover. He and his mate Jean (X,R:Of,OL) also successfully fledged chicks in 2018, but she did not return in 2019. Since then, Jerry has had numerous mates and he nested every year until the 2023 season when he disappeared after creating a nest with Eve (Of,YY:X,V). Their four eggs were salvaged and successfully captive-reared and fledged at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan.

During his life, he, along with his mates, produced 44 eggs and fledged 23 chicks. He was a devoted father who protected his chicks fiercely and was always up for a squabble with other shorebirds. He particularly liked to harass Killdeer. He was named in honor of Jerry McWilliams, who is a long-time birder and conservationist in Erie and who was instrumental in getting Gull Point designated as a state park Natural Area. Jean, the first female plover to nest here in 2017, was named to honor Jean Stull Cunningham who, like McWilliams, worked diligently to protect Gull Point.

Eve (Of,YY:X,V)

Eve has a geographically complex story. Hatched in 2015, she began breeding in 2016 on the beaches of Sauble, Ontario on Lake Huron (known as Ms. Green Dots there), where she nested for five years before moving to Sleeping Bear Dunes on Lake Michigan where she nested for two seasons. In 2022, though, she arrived at Gull Point and Jerry (Of,BY:X,O) convinced her to stay. She returned with him in 2023 and created a nest but lost it when Jerry went missing. She quickly renested with Yoll O(Ydot),L(292);X,L, (see his profile below). She, too, went missing in the 2023 season. She was an excellent mom, contributing 22 chicks to the population, including seven that were captive-reared.

Ollie (-,O(Rdot):X,L (245)

Ollie hatched on Gull Point in 2021, an offspring of Jerry (Of,BY:X,O). He returned in 2022 and successfully nested with Of,bb:X,Y (nicknamed Little Baby), fledging two chicks. He returned in 2023 and met up with Lola (X,L:O(Rdot),L(223), who we figured out is his mom (!) and they fledged two chicks. Ollie winters on Bunche Beach, near Ft. Myers Florida.

Lola (X,L:O(Rdot),L(223)

Hatched on Wasaga Beach, Ontario, Lola spent her 2021 season at Gull Point where she successfully nested with Jerry (Of,BY:X,O) and produced three fledges. One of them was Ollie (above). In 2023 she returned and nested with Ollie (-,O(Rdot):X,L (245), her son. They fledged two chicks.

‘***Yoll O***’ by **Ripley Kindervater**

Yoll (O(Ydot),L(292);X,L)

[Jerry’s grandson & Ollie’s son]

Hatched at Gull Point in 2022, Yoll returned and created a nest with Eve (Of,YY:X,V) after her first mate, Jerry went missing. He and Eve had four eggs before she, too, went missing. The eggs were salvaged and the chicks successfully fledged at Tawas State Park in Michigan after being captive reared.

Eubie

Eubie is named as such since he is an Unbanded Bird. We know nothing of his history or where he came from. He arrived at Gull Point in May. We initially thought he was a female, based on his very light plumage. He was “flying solo” until a female (X,Y;Of,Ob) showed up in June and they created a nest with four eggs. That nest, made on a high spot in one of Gull Point’s ponds was raised once due to high water and then moved more than 82 feet away after it was inundated a second time. All four of their chicks hatched but none survived to fledging age.

Yoob (X,Y;Of,Ob)

Yoob arrived at Gull Point in early June 2023. She had started the season at Sandy Island State Park in New York on Lake Ontario, where she was known as Arwen. Her mate went missing, though, and the eggs they laid were taken into the captive-rearing program. She then came here and created a nest with Eubie, the fate of which is described above in Eubie’s story.

Erie Bird Observatory is proud to be collaborating with local, state, and federal partners here in northwest Pennsylvania that are dedicated to shorebird conservation efforts through projects to restore, rehabilitate, and re-establish critical nesting and stopover sites.

Meet the Plovers!By Mary Birdsong