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.

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.