When we were staying with my parents last year, we visited the Lake County Forest Preserve District’s Prairie Wolf Slough quite a lot, as it was practically right across the street.
We visited Prairie Wolf on January 1st and afterwords I tweeted to the LCFPD that an elevated hide would be a great addition to the site. To my delight, LCFPD tweeted back a few days later: “Just learned a raised observation deck at Prairie Wolf is one of this summer’s proposed projects for Youth Conservation Corps.” How’s that for service? 😉
The project was started this summer. Here is what it looked like on July 22nd.
Although we couldn’t climb up onto the platform at that time, through the clearing we had a good look at the water, where we spotted this Great Blue Heron.
Later, LakeCookAudubon shared this photo via Twitter:
When we visited again on August 14th, a team was working on the platform, but allowed us to step on. The slough was fairly dry but busy with Killdeer and one Great Blue Heron. Here’s what the view looked like:
And one of the Killdeer on the mud:
By that time the viewing scopes were in place.
And holes were being dug for the signs.
During our most recent visit, on August 29th, the platform was completed and open for business. Yay!
