Exhibition Run: September 12 to October 31, 2025
Sharing Our Shore - Waukegan presents “Through the Eyes of the Piping Plovers: the Flora, Fauna & People of the Waukegan Dunes.” The exhibit shares the beauty and fragility of the endangered Great Lakes Piping Plovers with the community. By showcasing a diverse range of artistic works, we will encourage widespread awareness of the need to protect a unique habitat which supports a rich biodiversity, including human life!
We invited the Brushwood Botanical Artists to create works inspired by piping plovers and their habitat. Highlights include From Fluff Ball to Fledgling, a painting by Carthage College student and 2025 plover monitoring intern Oliver Slater, capturing the birds’ journey from hatching to fledging. Audubon award–winning photographer Steve Jessmore contributed striking plover portraits and a special image of our volunteers. The photographer’s work was recently featured in the National Audubon Summer Magazine seen here in an article about the Great Lakes Piping Plover Recovery Program.
The return of the endangered piping plovers to their historical nesting grounds in Waukegan has inspired both the community and the region. Through art, the extraordinary story of the Great Lakes Piping Plovers becomes more engaging and impactful, reaching people in ways that words or data alone cannot.
During the exhibition timeframe there will be showings of the LCAS documentary“Sharing Our Shore and the Return of the Piping Plover to the Shores of Waukegan”This film was created using photos and videos submitted by SOS-W volunteers. Speakers will provide presentations on four themes: Piping Plovers, Habitat, Migration and Community.
The special exhibit is open during regular museum hours and by special appointment:
Wednesday -Friday 11:00AM - 4:00 PM, Saturday 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM)
The special exhibit is free with paid museum admission. Admission fee waived during special presentations. Please oontact Carolyn Lueck at lakecountyaudubonsociety@gmail.com with any questions or to request a special showing.
SPECIAL PROGRAMMING DURING EXHIBIT
Thursday, September 18, 2025 6:00-8:30 PM
J’orge Garcia, Windy City Bird Lab Director
Program Description:
Millions of birds fly overhead every spring and fall. Tools like BirdCast tell us how many birds are migrating, but a new project in Chicagoland is working to reveal who is flying over and when.
Join J’orge Garcia, Director of the Windy City Bird Lab, for a presentation on the Chicago Bird Migration Monitoring Project. You’ll learn how it began, how it works, where it’s headed and how you can get involved. Visit chicagobirdmigration.net to see the project’s dashboard.
Their growing network of Nocturnal Flight Call (NFC) recorders, launched in 2023 with foundational support from Cornell and Openlands, now spans 35 stations in collaboration with the University of Illinois, tracking migratory bird movement in across the Chicagoland region.
Waukegan will soon be joining a location list that includes the roof of the Willis “Sears” Tower, the Adler Planetarium, Northwestern University and the CCRx Warehouse at the Envision Unlimited Frick Center!
Join us for a tour of the Piping Plover Special Exhibit followed by this presentation.
J'orge Garcia is a Chicago-area birder who brings his unique skill set from working to support Chicago's maker community into our great birding community. He first discovered birding after modeling a 3D-printed lens mount to attach vintage lenses to a mirrorless camera. Jorge shared his birding journey online through Twitter as he explored printing postcards and learning about Chicago's avian diversity.
His online sharing led him to become increasingly involved in the local birding community. He previously served on the board of the Illinois Ornithological Society and coordinated the Birds in My Neighborhood program at Openlands.
He now serves as the Director of the Windy City Bird Lab, leading projects like the Chicago Bird Migration Monitoring Network, which studies bird migration across the region. The program has since grown to support monitoring efforts in Minnesota, California, Colorado, and Mexico.
Suggested donation: $25.00
Saturday, September 20, 2025 1:00-3:00 PM
Artists Walkthrough, Hosted by Heeyoung Kim
Thursday, October 9, 2025 6:00-8:30 PM
Program Description
The Endangered Great Lakes Piping Plover Population: History and Hope
Forty years ago, Piping Plovers were close to extinction in the Great Lakes. Only 12-17 pairs were known to nest in Michigan and the population was listed as Endangered in 1985. By the summer of 2025, the number of pairs increased to 88 and plovers were nesting on all 5 Great Lakes and in 4 states and the province of Ontario. How did this change in numbers happen and is it possible for this population to recover to the point of delisting at 150 pairs? This presentation will provide an overview of the efforts to increase nesting numbers and the lessons learned along the way. The history of plovers in the Great Lakes is marked by many challenges but significant hope exists for the future of this still small and vulnerable group of birds.
Dr. Francesca Cuthbert, Distinguished Teaching Professor Emerita in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Francesca J Cuthbert is a Distinguished Teaching Professor Emerita in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. She has studied waterbirds in the North American Great Lakes for more than 40 years. Her research has focused on distribution and abundance (based on aerial and ground survey methodology) of colonial waterbirds as well as breeding ecology, demography, winter and migration ecology of waterbirds including the federally endangered population of the Great Lakes piping plover. For her work on piping plovers, she received a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Recovery Champion Award, the Ralph Schreiber Conservation Award from the American Ornithological Society and the Kai Curry Lindahl Conservation Award from the Waterbird Society.
Cuthbert has coordinated research and field season activities for the Great Lakes piping plover recovery effort as well as the US portion of the binational (with Canada) colonial waterbird survey in the Great Lakes. She has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and many reports on various topics of avian ecology, conservation andmanagement. Her research has been supported by over 60 grants from federal and state agencies as well as non-profit organizations. Additionally, she has advised over 50 graduate students on diverse aspects of avian biology. She is a member of the Waterbird Council of the Americas, Fellow of the American Ornithological Society and past-president of the Waterbird Society
Saturday, October 18, 2025 10:00-Noon
Book Reading and Discussion
Raised to Be Wild: The Tale of a Great Lakes Piping Plover by Sarah Saunders and Mary Lundeberg
This story is inspired by "Little Cooper," a captive-reared piping plover who lived for eight years, migrating from Michigan to Florida and back, fathering many chicks. The book takes you on a journey with another plover, "BroBob," from his egg rescue to his adventures as a parent. The unique contributions of several Conservation Team members are also highlighted, showing how their actions make a difference in BroBob's life.
Sarah Saunders , Quantitative Ecologist, National Science
Dr. Saunders is a quantitative ecologist at National Audubon Society and is based out of her home office in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her work predominantly focuses on the Great Lakes region, where she models occupancy, abundance, and population dynamics of breeding marsh birds as well as common loons. She also works with Audubon’s Climate Watch program data to model how species’ occupancy dynamics are shifting with climate change.
Screening dates and times to be released soon!
Film Screening: Sharing Our Shore and the Return of the Endangered Piping Plover to Waukegan Shores
Written, Narrated and Produced by Carolyn Lueck, President
Produced in 2024 and released in 2025, the film chronicles the life cycle of the endangered Great Lakes Piping Plovers as well as the creation of the Sharing Our Shore-Waukegan initiative. Blaze, and Pepper, two plovers that were captive-reared and released on a beach in Waukegan, Illinois in 2023, returned in 2024 and successfully fledged three young. Their story inspires the community to take action to protect the critical habitat found in Lake County.