The arrival of spring waterfowl is the first sign of spring for local birders as loons, pelicans and multiple duck species drop into Lake County lakes on the way north to their breeding grounds. Lake/Cook’s annual multi-stop spring waterfowl trip begins at Diamond Lake in Mundelein, with additional stops and directions provided at Diamond Lake based on leaders’ scouting to find the most productive sites. Dress warm, bring scopes if you have them, and get ready to greet what is usually dozens of Common Loons and American White Pelicans at one of our favorite inland waterways.
Directions: Meet at Gale Street Inn parking lot, 935 N. Diamond Lake Rd., Mundelein.
Leader: Jeff Sanders 847-675-7172 (landline)
Contact day of trip: Rena Cohen 847-971-1107
Register here.
Texas Hill Country and Big Bend Led by Red Hill Birding
Texas Hill Country and Big Bend National Park are must-visit U.S. destinations for avid birders. Highlights include Golden-cheeked Warbler and Black-capped Vireo, two endangered migratory songbirds that breed exclusively in south central Texas; Colima Warbler, a montane species found nowhere else in the U.S.; and stunners like Painted Bunting, Painted Redstart, Lucifer Hummingbird, Greater Roadrunner and many more – plus the spectacle of millions of Mexican Free-tailed Bats leaving their roosting cave in a small town 90 minutes west of San Antonio in the evening.
Red Hill’s last trip here tallied 181 species, including the Elf Owl that was voted #1 bird of the trip. The lodge at Big Bend is scheduled to close for renovations at the end of the season, so this will be the last opportunity to make the trip for several years.
Email renabird3@gmail.com for a detailed itinerary and pricing. Space is limited; Lake/Cook members have priority.
Do you struggle to distinguish Alder Flycatchers from Acadians, or Tree Swallows from Rough-winged? Have trouble deciding if you’re looking at a Willow Flycatcher or an Eastern Wood-Pewee, or ID’ing Cliff and Cave Swallows on the wing (which is how you usually see them)? With spring migration beginning, join us to get tips and tricks for identifying these aerial insectivores using field marks like tail and wingtip length as well as song mnemonics (fitz-bew!). In this interactive multimedia presentation, Matt Hayes, an avian biologist and Illinois Audubon Society’s Assistant Director, will also discuss why birds that catch their food in flight face population declines and what we can do to help save them.
Happy early spring – the perfect time to look for early migrants as well as join Lake/Cook Chapter’s continuing efforts to help Lake Forest Open Lands restore the property formerly known as Westleigh Meadow.
We’ll meet at Carruthers Nature Preserve at 7:30 am and start with a bird walk at West Skokie Nature Preserve directly across the street. This is an ongoing restoration that began 25 years ago and now boasts excellent pollinator prairie plants, hopefully beginning to leaf out for summer blooming. The endangered Rusty-patched Bumblebee has been spotted here, and last year the Eastern Bluebirds occupied nesting boxes by mid-April. Time permitting, we will finish with our walk on the new boardwalk at Carruthers, checking the pond for any waterfowl/wading birds.
Then we’ll participate in a restoration workday at Carruthers from 10-12. Work at this property began several years ago and has included removal of acres of buckthorn and other woody invasive species, seed collection, and enhancement of the current native herbaceous species. Join in – no experience required.
Directions: From Waukegan Rd (Rt 43), turn east on Westleigh Rd. and drive 1/8 mile to Wallace Rd – then turn north to Carruthers Nature Preserve. From Rt 41, turn west on Westleigh Rd. and drive 1/4 mile to Wallace Rd – then turn north to Carruthers Nature Preserve. Park along the street on Wallace Road.
Leader: Maureen Marsh 352-317-5130
Please register for the bird walk and/or field trip here so that we can get a head count and contact you in the event of a date change due to weather conditions.
NEW! An hour from the north suburbs, Muirhead Springs Forest Preserve is 757 acres of newly restored prairie and wetlands in Kane County and one of the newest birding hotspots in Chicagoland. In the spring the ponds boast a variety of waterfowl as well as shorebirds such as Black-necked Stilts, American Avocets, various sandpipers, and others as they stop on their way to breeding grounds up north. Grassland possibilities in late April include species like Vesper Sparrow, Lapland and Smith’s Longspurs, American Pipit, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Eastern and occasional Western Meadowlarks, early Bobolinks and more.
NOTE: The paths are a mixture of crushed limestone and cut grass that can be wet and muddy, weather depending. Please dress appropriately. Bring scopes if you have them.
Directions: The parking lot entrance is at 42W855 Bahr Road. (Do NOT go to the Rohrsen Road address.) From the north suburbs, take I-294 south, drive 12 miles to exit 40B to take I-90 west to Rockford. Drive 30 miles to exit 47 for IL-47 south. Continue for 6.8 miles, turn left onto Bahr Road, and turn right into the parking lot.
Leaders: John Sprovieri and Regina McNulty 630-347-5991
Please register for the Muirhead Springs field trip here so that we can get a head count and contact you in the event of a date change due to weather conditions.
Techny Basin Conservation Are offers an easy paved walking/cycling path winding around the Techny Basin wetlands, providing opportunities for early landbird migrants along the trail as well as shorebirds when mudflat conditions are right. (One birder had nine shorebird species at the same time last year.) We’ll start at Techny at 4:30 pm, grab a quick dinner at Whole Foods, then head to Kent Fuller Air Station Prairie at 6:45 pm to be in place at dusk when American Woodcocks begin peenting and taking to the sky in their amazing aerial courting display.
Bring scopes if you have them for viewing the Techny Basin wetlands. Dress for possible ticks and wet conditions at Air Station Prairie (high socks, light-colored pants, boots).
Directions: Techny Basin Conservation Area is located south of Willow Road at 2050 Claire Ct. Driving west on Willow, turn left on Ravine Way, go 0.6 mile and turn left onto Claire Ct. at the JourneyCare sign (the street sign is blocked by a tree). Follow Claire Ct. south to the turnaround at the end and park in the gravel parking lot, leaving room for other vehicles. Air Station Prairie is a few minutes away at 2400 Compass Rd.
Leader: John Leonard 847-845-5563
Please register for the Shorebirds by Day, Woodcocks by Night field trip here so that we can get a head count and contact you in the event of a date change due to weather conditions.
This underbirded migrant hotspot was Lake County’s first forest preserve, created in 1961, and features five miles of trails along oak forest and wetlands. We’ll be looking for the first wave of landbird migrants – potentially earlier than usual due to climate change.
Directions: From US 41 North, turn east on Rte. 173. Drive 0.1 miles and turn left (north) into the preserve. Park in the first parking lot on your right.
Leaders: Wanda Supanich 224-433-1675 and Susan Lamberts
Please register for the Van Patten Woods field trip here so that we can get a head count and contact you in the event of a date change due to weather conditions.
This hotspot along the Des Plaines River corridor is a great migrant trap that can attract the first wave of spring warblers, vireos and sparrows. Resident Pileated and Red-headed Woodpeckers and Barred and Great-horned Owls are other possible highlights at this site, which is both an Illinois Nature Preserve indicating its ecologically high-quality land and a Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Directions: From Deerfield Rd., turn north on Riverwoods Rd., drive to Ryerson entrance. Enter preserve and follow the signs to Brushwood Visitors Center. Meet in the Brushwood parking lot. NOTE: The gates open at 6:30 am.
Leaders: Charlotte Pavelka and Doug Reitz 847-337-3602
Please register for the Ryerson Conservation Area here so that we can get a head count and contact you in the event of a date change due to weather conditions.
This Cook County forest preserve provides excellent birding opportunities in the early spring before the trees leaf out, often yielding an abundance of warblers and other passerines. Most of the trails offer easy walking, but trails along the north branch of the Chicago River where many birds tend to hang out can be muddy and require a short walk down to the river, so be sure to wear good trail shoes.
This is a limited-capacity trip because of the narrow river trail and extensive restoration work elsewhere in the preserve that requires careful walking. Priority to Lake/Cook members.
Directions: From the Kennedy Expressway, take exit 41C to Cicero Avenue and drive south to the light at Foster Ave. Turn left (east) and then left into the Irene Hernandez Picnic Grove lot on Foster.
Leader: Ethan Ellis 773-218-9288
Please register for the LaBagh Woods field trip here so that we can get a head count and contact you in the event of a date change due to weather conditions.
One of the top migrant hotspots in the northern suburbs, this Cook County forest preserve boasts the extensive woodland trails and a shoreline by the restored lagoons that attract virtually every species of warbler seen in the Chicago region as well as migrating thrushes, flycatchers, vireos and more. Ospreys nesting on the west side of the preserve should also be present, along with multiple waterbird species and flyover raptors.
Waterproof shoes are advisable in case the woods along the lagoons shoreline are wet.
Directions: Meet at the Willow Rd. entrance just east of the Edens Expressway (the sign says Erickson Woods). From the north, take the Edens southbound and exit at Tower Road. Turn left (south) on the Frontage road to Willow Road. Turn left (east) on Willow and cross over the Edens to the Erickson Woods entrance. Park at the north end of the parking lot.
Leader: Jeff Bilsky 801-842-4013
Please register for the Skokie Lagoons field trip here so that we can get a head count and contact you in the event of a date change due to weather conditions.
The trails in this Lake County Forest Preserve move from pine grove to prairie to oak woodland, providing varied habitat that makes it an ideal location to look for spring migrants as well as birds that will stay to nest like Blue-winged Warblers. One eBird checklist from the same time last year counted 59 species including 17 types of warblers.
Directions: The entrance to Lyons Woods is located at the corner of Blanchard and Sheridan Roads, north of Bowen Park and south of York House Road.
Leader: Donna Kenski 847-347-3474
Please register for the Lyons Woods field trip here so that we can get a head count and contact you in the event of a date change due to weather conditions.
Pack a picnic dinner and join us for a 5 pm bird walk at the height of spring migration in one of the birdiest forest preserves in Lake County. Daniel Wright Woods and Half Day Forest Preserve are linked by a footbridge over the Des Plaines River, providing crucial habitat for songbirds that utilize the river as a rest stop on their migratory journeys and often yielding over 20 species of warblers on a good day. We’ll bird first, then gather at the picnic tables near the Wright Woods parking lot to eat and socialize.
Directions: From Waukegan Rd., turn west on Everett Rd. in Lake Forest, drive to the end (St. Mary’s Rd), and turn left (south) into the parking lot. Meet in the parking lot at Everett and St. Mary’s Roads.
Leader: Todd Katz 847-409-7355
Please register for the Daniel Wright Woods bird walk and picnic here so that we can get a head count and contact you in the event of a date change due to weather conditions.
Every year since 1972, volunteers have participated in this one-day count across the entire state of Illinois to help measure bird populations. If you’re interested, contact Adam Sell (adamwardsell@gmail.com) for Lake County assignments or Alan Anderson (casresearch@comcast.net) for Cook County assignments, or to join an existing group.
Start your Mother’s Day with a (bird)song! With its Lake Michigan beach and “Magic Hedge” bushes serving as a welcome stopover for birds migrating along the Mississippi Flyway, Montrose is a world-famous birding hotspot that has attracted more than 300 species – including some of the rarest birds ever recorded in the state. Mid-May should be hopping with warblers, vireos, flycatchers, thrushes, wrens, sparrows, shorebirds and other bird “magic” – hopefully including the latest generation of Piping Plovers descended from Monty and Rose.
Directions: From Lake Shore Dr. take the Montrose Ave. exit east, turn right at the Bait Shop at Montrose Harbor Dr., park near the sanctuary entrance and feed parking meters OR park on Montrose before or after Bait Shop for free.
Leader: Geoff Williamson 773-485-5217
Please register for the Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary field trip here so that we can get a head count and contact you in the event of a date change due to weather conditions.
Part of the original grove of oak and hickory trees for which Long Grove was named, this small preserve is an oasis of calm that can yield a nice series of migrants on a good day. It offers easy walking through woodland trails and borders an inland lake that houses resident populations of waterfowl and herons.
Directions: Reed-Turner is located at 3849 Old McHenry Road, ½ mile south of Rte. 22 / Half Day Rd in Long Grove.
Leader: Jerry Hampton 630-400-0755
Please register for the Reed-Turner Woodland Preserve field trip here so that we can get a head count and contact you in the event of a date change due to weather conditions.
Birders at Lake County’s largest forest preserve have reported 229 species here, thanks to habitat that includes a mixture of oak woods, wetlands and fields. The first-ever state record of Painted Redstart was reported here in 2023, drawing scores of birders from around the state to see this stunning black and red warbler far from its home in the southwestern U.S.
Directions: From westbound Route 176, turn left (south) onto Fairfield Road. Within a 1/4 mile turn right (southwest) onto W. Ivanhoe Road. Do NOT turn left into the Lakewood Forest Preserve parking lot. Continue southwest on Ivanhoe Road about 1/4 mile to the first road on your left (past big white house on corner). This road is gravel and unnamed. Drive down this road to a small parking lot and public toilets. (Map)
Leader: Donna Kenski 847-347-3474
Please register for the Lakewood Forest Preserve field trip here so that we can get a head count and contact you in the event of a date change due to weather conditions.
The group of songbirds known as Darwin’s finches that Charles Darwin collected in the Galapagos on his 1830s HMS Beagle expedition are frequently (and mistakenly) associated with his formulation of the theory of evolution by natural selection, but recent genetic studies have established that these birds are actually tanagers in the family Thraupidae. John Bates, the Rowe Family Curator of Evolutionary Biology at the Field Museum, will join us to explain the research behind these new revelations and other insights provided by genetic research into the relationships in this amazing family of New World birds.
Wyalusing Treasures @ Wyalusing State Park, Wisconsin
Just four hours from Chicago’s north suburbs, Wyalusing State Park at the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers is one of Wisconsin’s top birding spots as well as one of its most picturesque. The forests and waters provide abundant habitat for a wide variety of species, with potential lingering migrants as well as summer residents like Cerulean, Prothonotary and Yellow-Throated Warblers. We’ll meet about halfway there on Friday morning to bird at a spot in Janesville, spend Saturday at Wyalusing with a local guide who knows the park well, and bird Sunday at another spot along the Mississippi before heading home.
Our motel is small (just 8 rooms) so we have limited capacity and are reserving participation to Lake/Cook members. You can also camp at Wyalusing or find your own accommodations. Email Kerry Swift (swift.kerry@gmail.com) for details.
Note: Please let Kerry know if you have a canoe or kayak. If so, there may be an option to bird the river where it’s easiest to see Prothonotary Warblers.