Illinois & MIdwest Weekends

These trips are designed as weekend birding getaways to some of the best places in Illinois and around the Midwest. Most of these trips start on Friday evening to end after a morning of birding on Sunday; the price includes two nights’ lodging, most meals, and an expert guide. Unless otherwise specified, trips are limited to 8 participants.

Most of our trips are limited to weekends within Illinois, but we have started expanding to wonderful birding locations across the Midwest. Have a Midwest trip in mind? We are happy to take suggestions.

***NEW TRIP*** MAGIC STUMP movie weekend special!
A portion of Proceeds will benefit The magic stump film project

December 2-4, 2022 (Fri-Sun) with Josh Engel, Bob Dolgan, and local birders. Based in Arcola. Price: $500 per person sharing. Single supplement $120. Price includes two nights’ accommodations, a screening of The Magic Stump on Friday evening, meals from breakfast on Saturday through breakfast on Sunday, and guiding.

After the success of Monty & Rose 2, this very special trip will combine a screening of Bob Dolgan’s latest bird-themed film, The Magic Stump, with visit to the namesake Magic Stump! Best known for hosting the only wintering Prairie Falcons east of the Mississippi River, the “magic” in its names also comes from the fact that just about every possible open country raptor you can think of has stopped in—even Gyrfalcon and Snowy Owl! We will get an introduction to the stump from Tyler Funk, who helped make it famous and we will learn all about the stump’s magic.

While searching for Prairie Falcon around the stump will be a focus of the trip, by early December, we will hope to find other birds of agricultural and grassland landscapes, like Lapland Longspur, Horned Lark, Nothern Harrier, Rough-legged Hawk, and Short-eared Owl. We will also visit Lake Charleston, a great place to find waterfowl in late fall, try to find the flocks of Snow and Greater White-fronted Geese that are arriving at that time, and will visit some local woodlands as well. This trip will be hosted by the filmmaker, Bob Dolgan, led by Red Hill Birding’s Josh Engel, and we will be accompanied by a local birder as well.

Illinois River Valley Shorebird Special

September 9-11, 2022 (Fri-Sun) with Josh Engel. Price: $490 per person sharing. Single supplement $120. Price includes two nights’ accommodations, meals from breakfast on Saturday through breakfast on Sunday, and guiding.

Back for the fourth consecutive year, we are pleased to again offer multiple departures of our popular Shorebird Special to Chautauqua and Emiquon National Wildlife Refuges in Central Illinois. This section of the Illinois River Valley is surely the state’s top hotspot for shorebirds. The August trip hits the peak of shorebird migration and will mark the arrival in numbers of teal and other puddle ducks; mid-September is a fantastic time to study shorebirds as well as to see puddle ducks and migrant songbird. We will hope for excellent shorebird conditions at the refuges that will allow us to study in the ins and outs of shorebird identification and ecology with an expert guide. We will search through the many Pectoral Sandpipers, Lesser Yellowlegs, and Killdeer for less common birds like Baird’s, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, and Stilt Sandpipers, American Golden Plover, and phalaropes. Some days can net 20 or more species of shorebirds! We’ll also keep an eye out for other migrants like terns, herons and egrets, and southbound warblers.  

The trip will start with night birding on the Friday night, looking especially for Barred Owl (though perhaps we will hear a late Whip-poor-will as well). We will then have the full day on Saturday and the morning of Sunday before wrapping up late Sunday morning. We will be based in Pekin, IL.

Mississippi Palisades & Lost Mound (Northwest Illinois)

June 3-5, 2022 (Fri-Sun) with Adam Sell
$520 per person sharing. Single room supplement: $135. Price includes two nights’ accommodations, meals from breakfast on Saturday through breakfast on Sunday, and guiding.

There’s a reason that the Illinois State Record Big Day started in along the Mississippi River in Carroll County. There are a whole lot of birds in a small area! Between the grasslands of Lost Mounds and the forests of Mississippi Palisades, the diversity and quality of birds is simply stunning. Lost Mounds--the former Savanna Army Depot and now part of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife Refuge--is primarily grassland and savannah atop sandy soil that is home to a variety of birds with very localized distributions in northern Illinois, like Whip-poor-will, Lark Sparrow, Blue Grosbeak, Western Meadowlark, and Northern Mockingbird.

Nearby, the bluffs of Mississippi Palisades State Park are likewise home to a variety of birds with localized distributions in northern Illinois, but those of high quality forest: Cerulean, Kentucky, Yellow-throated, and Hooded Warblers, Summer Tanager, Broad-winged Hawk, and others.

Pere Marquette State Park and surrounds (West-central Illinois)

May 6-8, 2022 (Fri-Sun) with Nathan Goldberg
Price $590 per person sharing. Single room supplement $190. Price includes two nights’ accommodations, meals from breakfast on Saturday through breakfast on Sunday, and guiding.

The Lodge at Pere Marquette State Park in Grafton (north of St. Louis) will be your base for the weekend exploring forests, fields, and wetlands at the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers in a beautiful and under-birded part of the state. This trip coincides with the peak of spring migration, so in addition to breeding birds like Kentucky, Yellow-throated, Prothonotary, and Worm-eating Warblers, White-eyed Vireo, Yellow-breasted Chat, Summer Tanager, and other southern breeding species, migrants will be pouring through, adding to the warbler list and perhaps including shorebirds and other waterbirds if conditions are good. You may even get to experience the Brussels car ferry as you head across the big river into Calhoun County to visit Two Rivers National Wildlife Refuge.

Hawk Ridge (Minnesota) Raptor & Migration Spectacular

September 15-19, 2022. Announcement and registration coming soon! Guide: Adam Sell Price: $1700 per person sharing. Single room supplement $475. Price includes 4 nights’ accommodations, meals from dinner on Thursday and breakfast and Monday, guiding and interpretation services at Hawk Ridge and a donation to Hawk Ridge Observatory.

Late September is the peak time for the visible migration of birds like hawks, eagles, falcons, blackbirds, blue jays, robins, and many others at Duluth’s famed Hawk Ridge.