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.