Top Ten Birding Sites and Trails 9. Chautauqua National Wildlife Refuge


19031 E CR 2110N, Havana - Tis 4,480-acre U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service site has great diversity: oak-hickory and riparian forests, floodplain shrub, marsh, and open lake. Bald Eagles hunt the wetlands with a nesting pair returning most every year. Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, and Green Heron are common wading species. Woodland songbirds haunt the forests. For dedicated birders, the shorebird migration is a must see event. Te pools are often managed to attract migrating plovers, sandpipers, godwits, other shorebirds and waterfowl during their biannual migration. Also look for Wood ducks, Prothonotary Warbler, Common Loon, grebes, swans, American White Pelicans, and Double- crested Cormorants. Parts of the refuge are closed during the fall-winter waterfowl season. For information on access, stop at the refuge headquarters. Tree observation decks (one with a mounted scope) are accessible from the Chautauqua Nature Trail, which winds through a black oak sand forest. Te cross levee at Eagle Bluff Access area provides the most expansive view of the entire 4,488 acre refuge, another IBA.


10. Sue & Wes Dixon Waterfowl Refuge at Hennepin & Hopper Lakes


Hennepin Farms Road and Route 26, Hennepin - Te historic Illinois landscape of backwater lakes, wetlands, prairies, fens, and seeps now flourishes on former cornfields along the Illinois River. Virginia, King, and Sora Rails have all been sighted as have migrating Trumpeter Swans, Franklin’s gulls, Black Terns, Bald Eagles, and American White Pelicans. Te Wetlands Initiative began the restoration of this lake and wet prairie in the spring of 2001 and the diversity of flowers, butterflies, birds and mammals has surprised even optimists. Now open to the public with a boat ramp, 30-foot viewing tower, and hiking trails, it was one of the first large-scale floodplain restoration projects along the Illinois River.


BIRDING ETIQUETTE


While traveling the Illinois River Road enjoy the sights and sounds of our feathered friends but please keep these simple rules in mind:


• Please give the birds space. Stay back from nests or feeding birds. If birds are scared off the nest or chased away from their food, their lives could be in danger.


• Birders are quiet for a reason. Often you will hear a bird before you see it. • Stay on paths and trails so you reduce disturbance to habitats. Be aware of local hunting seasons for your own safety.


• Be sure to pull well off the road to avoid an accident or better yet, park in designated spaces and enjoy a


pleasant hike, bike ride or canoe trip! • Respect private property and be a good neighbor, putting litter in its place. • Take only pictures and leave only footprints; more than cliché, but a great way to travel the Illinois River Road!


(Adapted from the American Birding Association, for more information visit: www.aba.org)


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WHITE PELICANS by Jim Miller


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