The Illinois Audubon Society partnered with the City of Chillicothe and held a work day on December 7th at the Chillicothe Bottoms Wildlife Sanctuary. The crew worked on trails and added signage to make trail access more visible. They will be utilizing Moffitt Nature Park’s second parking lot as a permanent entrance to their trails.

The 225-acre sanctuary is adjacent to the City of Chillicothe’s Moffitt Nature Park and contains premier old-growth floodplain forest, button bush swamp, and wetland habitat. The property includes approximately one mile of frontage on the Illinois River and approximately ¼ mile of lower Senachwine Creek at its confluence with the river.

A total of 163 bird species have been identified at the site. These include American black duck, great egret, lesser scaup, canvasback, brown creeper, northern harrier, marsh wren, yellow-billed cuckoo, northern flicker, bald eagle, wood thrush, yellow-breasted chat, short-billed dowitcher, hooded merganser, Connecticut warbler, Kentucky warbler, osprey, pied-billed grebe, prothonotary warbler, brown thrasher, greater yellowlegs, and blue-winged warbler. Two of these species—the northern harrier and osprey—are state listed endangered species.