Prospect Heights welcomes new Slough resident

Residents, amateur bird-watchers and the Prospect Heights Natural Resources Commission are excited to have a new neighbor who seems to have settled into this suburban enclave. A bald eagle has been observed frequenting the Hillcrest Lake and Slough areas located between Elmhurst and Wheeling roads.

The PHNRC reports the new resident has been hanging out for the last five months and was seen as recently as Sunday feeding on fish caught from Hillcrest Lake. Though bald eagles may frequent the Starved Rock area and are often seen along the Mississippi during winter, this is the first to frequent this quiet suburb of half acre lots and 16,500 people in recent history.

Prospect Heights Natural Resources Commissioner Dana Sievertson, when asked about the new resident raptor, said, "Build it and they will come," referring to the many hundreds of hours volunteers have spent restoring the area to reflect the biodiversity that existed before development.

PHNRC Chairperson Agnes Wojnarski added, "With the all the changes to the habitat over the last three years, we are seeing ever increasing numbers and diversities of higher quality birds. We now have nesting black crowned night Herons, three broods of wood ducks, cedar waxwings, kingfishers and a variety of shore line birds, to name a few. It will be very interesting to see what else shows up as the restoration matures."

Though formerly endangered, the bald eagle is considered one our country's greatest success stories and is currently classified as "Protected" by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

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