Jarvis Migratory Bird Sanctuary
by Arthur
Posted on Thursday, January 1st, 2009 at 10:10 am CET
Yesterday we drove down to Lincoln Park in Chicago and briefly visited the Jarvis Migratory Bird Sanctuary. We had heard that a Great Horned Owl had been sighted there the last few days so we went to have a look for it. Unfortunately we couldn’t find it, but it was still nice to see the bird sanctuary.
It was a very sunny beautiful day, but verrrrrry cold! We walked around the fenced bird sanctuary and quickly returned to the warm car. We didn’t see many birds, except for some robins, pigeons, gulls and starlings. We did see these two little Hooded Mergansers (a new species for us) floating around the ice floes in the harbor.
The 8-acre Bill Jarvis Migratory Bird Sanctuary is an important stopover for some of the 7 million birds that pass through Chicago during the spring and fall migrations. The whole area is surrounded by a large black fence and no humans are allowed inside. You can walk all around along the fence.
There are a few information signs posted outside the sanctuary with interesting information about the birds that use it. Did you know that young ducklings of Wood Ducks have sharp claws for climbing up and down trees?
On the east side of the sanctuary there’s a nice viewing platform with a couple of benches and more information signs.
Some of the holes in the trees had little furballs in them. We reckoned that they were all raccoons. How cute is this?
We didn’t see many birds and it was extremely cold, but we still had a beautiful view of the city from Belmont Harbor. Those two largest buildings on the next photo are John Hancock Building on the left and Sears Tower on the right:
We also saw the Kwagulth Totem Pole, which is an exact replica of the original Kraft Lincoln Park totem pole, which was donated to the City of Chicago by James L. Kraft in 1929. It stood there until 1985 when it was moved to British Columbia in Canada.
Yesterday we drove down to Lincoln Park in Chicago and briefly visited the Jarvis Migratory Bird Sanctuary. We had heard that a Great Horned Owl had been sighted there the last few days so we went to have a look for it. Unfortunately we couldn’t find it, but it was still nice to see the bird sanctuary.
It was a very sunny beautiful day, but verrrrrry cold! We walked around the fenced bird sanctuary and quickly returned to the warm car. We didn’t see many birds, except for some robins, pigeons, gulls and starlings. We did see these two little Hooded Mergansers (a new species for us) floating around the ice floes in the harbor.
The 8-acre Bill Jarvis Migratory Bird Sanctuary is an important stopover for some of the 7 million birds that pass through Chicago during the spring and fall migrations. The whole area is surrounded by a large black fence and no humans are allowed inside. You can walk all around along the fence.
There are a few information signs posted outside the sanctuary with interesting information about the birds that use it. Did you know that young ducklings of Wood Ducks have sharp claws for climbing up and down trees?
On the east side of the sanctuary there’s a nice viewing platform with a couple of benches and more information signs.
Some of the holes in the trees had little furballs in them. We reckoned that they were all raccoons. How cute is this?
We didn’t see many birds and it was extremely cold, but we still had a beautiful view of the city from Belmont Harbor. Those two largest buildings on the next photo are John Hancock Building on the left and Sears Tower on the right:
We also saw the Kwagulth Totem Pole, which is an exact replica of the original Kraft Lincoln Park totem pole, which was donated to the City of Chicago by James L. Kraft in 1929. It stood there until 1985 when it was moved to British Columbia in Canada.
10:24 am
Hi
The Bill Jarvis bird sanctuary is to be destroyed if Chicago gets the Olympics. Please try to spread the word against this cruel treatment of birds.