Upcoming CHICAGO-AREA Day TRIPS
These half-day trips visit some of the best birding spots in the Chicago area and beyond. This schedule of trips is heavily weighted towards May, the peak of spring migration. Standard half-day trips cost $60/person and all trips have a maximum of 8 participants. With a few exceptions, trips start at 7:30am. All trips are self-driving, led by an expert Red Hill Birding guide (see guide bios here). Depending on the timing of each trip, we may visit other nearby sites as time permits. These trips will run rain or shine, unless the weather is expected to be particularly bad.
Interested in a day trip that you don’t see listed here? We can set up a custom tour of the region for you throughout spring. Contact us for more details.
UPCOMING HALF-DAY TRIPS Trips start at 7:30 am and last until about noon and cost $60/person, with any exceptions noted below.
Wednesday, April 15, 2026 Will & Grundy County Hotspots (Only 1 spaces left!) Guide: Steve Huggins Join Steve on a “guide’s choice” tour to visit the Des Plaines State Fish and Wildlife Area, Goose Lake Prairie State Natural Area, and wherever else the birds are! This tour will seek out early migrant passerines, waterfowl, and if conditions are right, shorebirds.
Tuesday, April 28, 2026 Waukegan Beach - Lake County (Only 1 space left!) Guide: Adam Sell Late April is prime time at Waukegan Beach! This tour is timed to give us our best shot at finding shorebirds, including American Avocet, Willet, and Piping Plover. We will search the beach and explore the surrounding woodlots for any early migrant warblers and sparrows. If time allows, we will also visit nearby Bowen Park to search for Carolina Wren and have our best shot at finding a migrant Louisiana Waterthrush.
Saturday, May 2, 2026 Skokie Lagoons - Cook County (Tour full! Contact us to join the waitlist.) Guide: Jeff Bilsky Join Jeff at his local patch to search for early spring warblers, sparrows, and vireos at a classic birding location in North Cook County. On the right day, migrants can be quite conspicuous. We also enjoy searching for nesting Osprey and Bald Eagle, and if luck is on our side, the first returning Prothonotary Warblers.
Friday, May 8, 2026 Kendall County Hotspots (Only 3 spaces left!) Guide: Steve Huggins Although it is close to Chicago, Kendall County remains an area not heavily covered by bird watchers, despite excellent habitat. We will spend the morning birding around the area for warblers, vireos, thrushes, and more at near peak migration. This is a great opportunity to explore a new area through the lens of spring migration.
Monday, May 11, 2026 Highland Park Hotspots - Lake County (Tour full! Contact us to join the waitlist.) Guide: Josh Engel We will start the morning at the small but mighty (and seldom visited) Berkeley Prairie Forest Preserve, surrounded by North Shore suburbia and undergoing an extensive habitat restoration effort. After that, we will hit another nearby hotspot - perhaps Heller Nature Center, a nice spot to find warblers and other migrants in the spring.
Thursday, May 14, 2026 Horner Park - Cook County (Tour full! Contact us to join the waitlist.) Guide: Steve Huggins Urban birding at its finest! Join Steve at one of Chicago’s classic urban parks at the peak of spring migration. We will be on the lookout for species like Blackburnian and Magnolia Warblers, Orchard Oriole, Clay-colored Sparrow and more! We will also spend time birding along the North Branch of the Chicago River, an important corridor for many migrant species.
Friday, May 15, 2026 Illinois Beach State Park: North Unit - Lake County (Tour full! Contact us to join the waitlist.) Guide: Adam Sell In mid-May, this is a prime location for migrants and specialty breeders. A good day can easily have 15+ species of warblers and other migrants. We will also check the varied habitats for localized breeders like Yellow-breasted Chat, Sedge Wren, Henslow’s Sparrow, and more.
Saturday, May 16, 2026 Linne Woods - Cook County (Only 2 spaces left!) Guide: Jeff Bilsky Another morning birding with Jeff at a local patch! Quickly getting on the radar of Chicagoland birders, Linne Woods is a gem. This is a great place and time of year to see just about any migrant. We will also be on the lookout for the local Barred Owls that call this stretch of the North Branch home.
Sunday, May 17, 2026 The Oaks of Harvard - McHenry County Guide: Lisa Maier Join Lisa to explore the very underbirded locations of Crowley Oaks, and Irish Oaks Savanna. These habits mix oak forest, oak savannah, marsh, and even some pine stands. Both sites are beautiful and should be chock-full of migrants! Join us for a fun morning of birding and adding important eBird data to these locations, which have fewer than 20 checklists between the two sites!
Saturday, May 23, 2026 Glacial Park - McHenry County (Only 3 spaces left!) Guide: Lisa Maier McHenry County’s Glacial Park is a top location for breeding birds and late migrants. With a mixture of oak woodlands, prairie, and marsh, it’s easy to rack up a nice bird list. Some birds we could encounter include Virginia Rail, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Willow Flycatcher, Orchard Oriole, Dickcissel, American Redstart, and more! Depending on water levels, Glacial Park can be a prime location for migrant shorebirds, too.
Sunday, May 24, 2026 Ryerson Woods- Lake County (Only 2 spaces left!) Guide: Jeff Bilsky One of the top hotspots in the county, Ryerson Woods in late May is a must-stop for local birders. Olive-sided and Yellow-bellied Flycatchers become more numerous and many of our favorite migrant warblers will still be moving through. It is also the peak for more difficult warblers like Mourning and Connecticut, which we will seek out.
Tuesday, May 26, 2026 Prairie Wolf Forest Preserve & Daniel Wright Woods - Lake County (Tour full! Contact us to join the waitlist.) Guide: Josh Engel An underbirded North Shore gem, this spot has a loop trail that starts through a lovely woodland and winds back through scrub, grassland, and marsh. From there, we'll make the short drive to Daniel Wright Woods to look for additional migrants. This is a great place for late spring warblers like Mourning and Connecticut, along with Prothonotary, Cerulean, and plenty of others.
Friday, May 29, 2026 Goose Lake and North Branch Conservation Area - McHenry County Guide: Adam Sell Goose Lake is a unique wetland, with several rare breeding birds, in particular Yellow-headed Blackbird, Black Tern, and Common Gallinule, along with Marsh Wren, Pied-billed Grebe, and more. Nearby is North Branch Conservation Area, a beautiful grassland area with Grasshopper and Henslow’s Sparrows, Bobolinks, and other characteristic birds of the Midwest prairie in summer. This trip will involve 3-4 miles of walking, but we do walk slowly!
