Your support is needed!

Robbie Hunsinger, founder of the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors (CBCM) program, and one of CCBM’s newest volunteers, Maddy Fields-Gollogly, recently spoke with Bob O’Neill, President of the Grant Park Advisory Council and Grant Park Conservancy about establishing a bird rehab facility on Northerly Island. It was Gollogly’s idea to build this facility.

Only a small route in the Loop is now monitored, and having a rehab facility nearby would greatly expand CBCM’s ability to minister to injured birds. For the last two years, the only rehab centers that took birds were in Wisconsin, Willowbrook, Illinois and most recently, the Fox Valley Wildlife Center in Elburn, IL. Driving from the city to these suburbs was a challenge, but Robbie and other monitors made the trips, sometimes six-hours long, to save the birds.

The efforts of volunteers and far-flung rehab centers has been heroic, but not practical or sustainable in the long run. Long travel times are also extremely stressful for wild, injured birds.

If you support the idea of a centrally located rehab facility for birds stunned and injured in the Loop and surrounding environs, please send an e-mail to boboneill@grantparkconservancy.com. After the first of the year, Mr. O’Neill will be promoting the facility. The more e-mails he has in hand, the stronger his case will be.

If you would like to be more involved in this effort, please contact Robbie at (773) 988-1867 or e-mail her at birdmonitors@earthlink.net. There are five more upcoming Park District meetings where the feasibility of establishing a rehab center on Northerly Island will be discussed. Your support is needed and welcome. For more info on the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors program, please visit www.birdmonitors.net.