I’ve been wanting to visit Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary (MPBS) in Chicago for a couple of years now and we finally made the trip! Joe took the day off work so we could avoid the weekend crowd which I hear gets pretty bad during migration.
We got up super early (4:45 am) for the drive into the city.
Joe decided to take Lower Wacker Drive to Lake Shore Drive, the former of which I had never traveled on.
Sure, I spent a lot of time in the city back in my twenties, but I always took public transportation, so it was an interesting experience driving “under” the loop.
Once we made it to MPBS and secured parking (which by the way has to be done via an app these days), we walked over to Lake Michigan to watch the sun rise which was spectacular.
Afterwards, we walked around the back of the sanctuary where a lot of palm warblers were gathering.
Much to my delight, there was also an abundance of black and white warblers throughout the sanctuary. They move so quickly it’s really difficult to lock focus in a timely manner. I was getting quite frustrated with myself, and my camera, which has issues losing focus at critical moments. Between that and my not so quick reflexes, I’ve missed many great shots over the years. But I digress…
Despite the challenges, I did get some cute warbler shots such as this one.
In addition to warblers, we saw a few lifers – a brown thrasher and a yellow-bellied sapsucker, but I didn’t get good photos of either unfortunately.
At one point we came across a hawk hunting a squirrel. It was so focused on chasing it around that it paid no attention to us, just mere feet away while it hopped into small bushes and trees and back to the ground in hot pursuit.
The squirrel got away.
The trails within the sanctuary are all over the place so even though I thought we hit every single one, based on my path tracking app, we missed a few spots.
No matter, we plan to go back in the spring during peak migration to hopefully see even more birds.
When we had about a half hour left on our parking, we headed back to the car to eat some snacks before moving onto our next stop – Bill Jarvis Bird Sanctuary, a short drive south along the lake.
When we first arrived, we were going to park in front near an entrance but they wanted $17 for two hours of parking. Insane! The sanctuary is pretty small, and I was worried it wouldn’t be worth it. We started to leave, but decided to check the parking lot by the nearby tennis courts. I’m glad we did because the parking there was a more reasonable $7 for two hours and a short walk to another entrance into the sanctuary.
We didn’t even spend an hour there because most of the sanctuary is fenced in; you can only walk around the perimeter and up a single overlook.
We also didn’t see anything exciting other than this racoon that didn’t seem too worried about us.
I’m really glad we found the other parking area as I would have been angry spending $17 on parking for that lackluster experience. It’s not a place I’d visit again. There are other birding hotspots I’d rather check on our next trip into the city.
That being said, I like this photo I took where it looks like there’s nothing beyond the trees. You have to walk closer to see the lake.
On the way home we stopped at Smoque BBQ to pick up lunch. Everything was good, although I was bummed they no longer have peach cobbler on the menu.
As I was leaving the restaurant with our takeout, I heard a jingling noise and suddenly a cute cat ran up and plopped down for pets. Of course I had to oblige!
Overall I enjoyed our trip into the city. My only regret was not staying longer. Our hunger and desire to avoid crazy afternoon traffic won out though.
I think it’s been nine years since we last ventured into Chicago (not counting my parents house which is nowhere near the loop or northside) and I missed it. Even Joe changed his attitude about it as we discussed the experience driving home. He had a more negative view of the city after having to work and drive in it for years. Now that he’s on board, we’d really like to go back soon to visit Lincoln Park Zoo, Chinatown, and a few parks south of MSI.