Lake Renwick Heron Rookery Nature Preserve is "By far the most valuable rookery in all of Illinois... a site of outstanding statewide significance," according to the Illinois Audubon Society. The 320-acre site was acquired beginning in 1989 and dedicated as a State Nature Preserve in 1992 to protect the breeding and foraging habitat for five species of then-endangered or threatened birds. Today, only one of the bird species remains endangered.
Lake Renwick Heron Rookery is a unique site in Illinois where great blue herons, great egrets, black-crowned night herons, double-crested cormorants, and cattle egrets nest together. The site includes a 200-acre lake with several small islands used for nesting.
The Lake Renwick Heron Rookery Visitor Center offers an opportunity for you to see these birds for yourself during public bird-viewing programs and interpretive hikes. During the breeding season, the Visitor Center and the Preserve are only open during these programs, which take place from May 1 through August 15 on Wednesdays at 10:00 a.m. and on Saturdays at 8:00 a.m., and are free of charge.
Photograph Courtesy of Scott Haulton
Location
Lake Renwick Heron Rookery Visitor Center is located on Renwick Road one mile east of Route 30 in Plainfield.
Lake Renwick Heron Rookery Nature Preserve is "By far the most valuable rookery in all of Illinois... a site of outstanding statewide significance," according to the Illinois Audubon Society. The 320-acre site was acquired beginning in 1989 and dedicated as a State Nature Preserve in 1992 to protect the breeding and foraging habitat for five species of then-endangered or threatened birds. Today, only one of the bird species remains endangered. 
