Grassland birds

[M.Bernat]

Last evening, the Mayor of the Village

Orland Park in sw Cook County kicked off National Grasslands Week with a Proclamation that paid tribute to the nearly 1,000 acres of Orland Grassland; its birds and IBA status; its flora, restoration volunteers and volunteer wildlife monitors (e.g. the Bird Conservation Network) and the positive impact grassland habitat has on the environment and community. 

Orland Grassland and the other grasslands that the Forest Preserves of Cook County manages are big wins for breeding grassland birds that rely entirely on grassland habitat — bobolink, dickcissel, eastern meadowlark, grasshopper sparrow, Henslow’s sparrow, savannah sparrow, sedge wren and vesper sparrow.

I’m thinking of other land managers in Illinois who help grassland birds, which are declining at an alarming rate and struggling for survival, by ensuring there are big and healthy breeding areas throughout our state despite its being dominated by agriculture and the built environment. Maybe you can add others to this list and maybe you can advocate for more and bigger grasslands where you live: 

• county systems throughout Illinois

• U.S. Forest Service - the 9,000 acre Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Will County (the easternmost of the 20 national grasslands)

• DNR - Prairie Ridge State Natural Areas in Jasper and Marion Counties ~2,000 acres

• The Nature Conservancy -  the 4,000+ acre Nachusa Grasslands in Lee and Ogle counties

• Illinois Audubon’s management of Robert Ridgway Nature Preserve in Jasper County and other downstate sites 

Let’s go out to grasslands and listen before we have to wait another year to hear the tiz-LICK of the Henslow’s sparrow. 

FYI, the FPCC gave Plum Creek FP’s grassland west of Burnham Ave. a makeover last winter. The autumn olive is gone from the interior (they look like skeletons) and it’s being managed as a prairie. It’s stunning. Let me know if you want to check it out for grassland birds. 

Happy summer birding and counting. 

Mary Bernat

South Cook County

Orland Grassland Volunteer

Bird Conservation Network monitor