Bird watching, better known as "birding," is a fast-growing sector of the tourist industry.
I know many individuals who do not know that many locations in Northwest Illinois, especially along the Rock River National Waterway, are amazing places of bird habitat and bird research.
One function of the Audubon Society is to find natural areas that are home to many birds, especially rare or endangered bird species. Such locations can become an Important Birding Area, or IBA. Three places in the Rock River Valley Region have received that distinction:
- Castle Rock State Park between Dixon and Oregon
- Lowden-Miller State Forest near Oregon
- and Nachusa Grassland Northeast of Dixon.
Research is continually being done in all regions of Northwest Illinois in an effort to identify more spots that are important to the bird community. We are so fortunate to live in a region so many important ecosystems that attract many species of birds -- especially endangered and rare birds. The Nachusa Grasslands alone has more than 180 bird species.
Other hot spots for birding are White Pines State Park, Franklin Creek State Park, Pine Creek, the Green River, and of course the Rock River where several species of waterfowl have set up home in the past five years.
It's so important that we all do our part to keep our birding areas environmentally safe. And it's important to make more people aware of our incredible birding areas and promote this aspect of tourism as much as possible.
I'm Phillip LeFevre, and that's my perspective
