SUPERIOR, WI (KDAL) – For the first time in 49 years, a pair of piping plovers, an endangered migratory shore bird, have been observed nesting on Wisconsin Point in Superior.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says the St. Louis River estuary has historically supported breeding populations of the bird, but nesting pairs have not been documented since 1977.
The piping plovers are nesting on a stretch of sand created with clean dredged material from the harbor in 2019 with funding from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
The material was placed near the state owned Wisconsin Point Bird Sanctuary and created 14 acres of new nesting and foraging habitat. That area is closed to the public to ensure that the birds, their eggs and young are not disturbed.
The site joins the Apostle Islands and lower Green Bay as the only places where nesting piping plovers have been seen in Wisconsin.
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