We are thrilled to have successfully run the FIRST EVER commercial birding tour of Chicago, our wonderful home town along the beautiful Lake Michigan shoreline. We had nice weather, good birding, delicious food, and an all-around great time. The tour, CHICAGO BIRDS & ARCHITECTURE, included two dedicated architectural tours of the city’s world-famous buildings and urban design. We birded places like Montrose Point, Jackson Park, Indiana Dunes, the Calumet area, and more. Our architecture tours took in a river cruise on the Chicago River and a private walking tour of downtown Chicago with an expert guide. We didn’t have any stellar migration days, but we steadily build up our bird list to over 100 species, with a mix of early season migrants like warblers and thrushes and late season migrants like sapsuckers and kinglets.
You can read the trip report here. I didn’t take a whole lot of photos, but you can see a selection of photos from the trip here. We hope to run this trip annually—you can find next year’s itinerary here. We can’t wait until the next one!
“Josh & Amanda,
Thank you both for a very informative, enjoyable, and memorable tour. It exceeded our expectations!”
A view of the Chicago skyline over South Pond, right near the trip’s hotel. We visited here on the trip’s first afternoon. Photo by Josh Engel.
