(If you are from outside the neighborhood, here are directions on how to get to the neighborhood and the general area near the Museum of Science and Industry. There is a small parking lot located southeast of the museum and close to the Clarence Darrow bridge that is convenient for birders, and that can be reached from Lake Shore Drive. On Lake Shore Drive which passes east of the museum beside the lake there is a traffic light just to the east of the museum; at this traffic light, turn west toward the museum on Science Drive, and at the stop sign turn left (south), and drive into the parking lot. During birding hours, there is also usually adequate street parking north and east of the museum and other parking lots are available in the general area including south of Wooded Island in Jackson Park.

Meet the group on the Clarence Darrow bridge, which is located on Columbia Drive at the south side of the north lagoon (Columbia Basin) which is immediately south of (behind) the Museum of Science and Industry; see the accompanying map which diagrammatically shows the location of Columbia Drive (no vehicles!) and the north and east lagoons and the waterway between them which this bridge crosses.

Here's another map that may give you a slightly better idea of the park area where where we go birding. The group generally visits the nearby lagoon areas, the Osaka Garden and the Paul H. Douglas Nature Sanctuary on Wooded Island, walking south, crossing the bridg, turning east and then turning north through Bobolink Meadow and back to the Clarence Darrow Bridge during a circle walk with duration of about an hour and a half. The group includes both experienced birders and novices; everyone is welcome to come on the bird walks.

Our original and long-time leader Doug Anderson is now retired and has limited his activities, but occasionally comes and leads the bird walks during the birding season. Dedicated birder Karin Cassel comes out on an almost daily basis year-round and shares her knowledge and skills with participants on these birdwalks. Paul Clyne is our local expert birder but seldom comes on the bird walks.

Among the many different types of birds that you can expect to see here at different seasons of the year are: many migratory birds, including a large variety of spring and fall warblers; great blue herons, green herons, and black crowned night herons; nesting swallows; various ducks including wood ducks with their ducklings; and colonies of feral monk parakeets as well as familiar birds such as the cardinal (our state bird), which are here all year round. We frequently see hawks and more rarely owls, like great horned owls and sawwhet owls, and we fairly often see peregrine falcons (the official bird of the City of Chicago). Among the mammals in the area, we have beavers and see them and muskrats occasionally, and there are resident raccoons like this one that greeted us after the severe storm that took down many trees in the area during July 2003. Here's a photo of a great blue heron sitting on one of those downed trees.

And here is Karen, who birds with us when she comes to Chicago, at home in Albuquerque with a friend.

Photocredits

Here are some resources for birding in the Chicago area: