[BCNnet] invitation - Saturday IBA dedication and field trip - DuPage

[bobolnk at ix.netcom.com]

Bird Is the Word!

 Bring your binoculars, and join the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County on Saturday, September 24 as it celebrates the designation of the Pratt's Wayne/Phillip State Park Grassland complex as an Audubon Important Bird Area.

The celebration will take place at the James "Pate" Philip State Park Visitor Center at 2054 West Stearns Road in Bartlett. (The state park borders Pratt’s Wayne preserve.) A 7:30 a.m. guided bird walk will be immediately followed by a 10 a.m. designation ceremony, featuring ornithologist Mike Ward.

The Important Bird Area program is an international program that identifies sites that provide critical habitat for significant breeding bird populations and concentrations of migratory birds. Pratt's Wayne Woods Forest Preserve is especially significant because of its importance as a habitat for the Illinois state-endangered yellow-headed blackbird (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus). It was one of 48 sites chosen statewide.

For information on the Audubon Important Bird Area program, visit www.habitatproject.org

Judy Pollock
Evanston (Cook) 
bobolnk at ix.netcom.com