Birding at IBSP South Unit takes you through marsh, dune, swale, oak woods and Lake Michigan beach habitats, providing a rich mix of passerines, waterfowl and raptors. The park should be hopping with a rich variety of warblers and other migrating songbirds, along with a handful of shorebirds and harder-to-find species like Sedge Wren and European Goldfinch.  This is also the only reliable spot in Lake County for Brewer’s Blackbirds, which are rare summer residents in Illinois.

Directions: IBSP South is located between Bowen Park in Waukegan and North Point Marina in Winthrop Harbor. From Sheridan Road (IL 137), turn east on Wadsworth Rd. a few blocks north of Emily’s Pancake House and drive 2 miles into the park. Park in the Nature Center parking lot. (Be sure you go to the South Unit – also called Adeline Jay Geo-Karis Illinois Beach State Park – and not the North Unit at 7th Street.)

Leader: Donna Kenski 847-347-3474

Please register for the IBSP South Unit bird walk HERE so that we can get a headcount and contact you in the event of a date change due to weather conditions.