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The Clark Street Beach Bird Sanctuary is a Lake Michigan Lakeside Migratory bird stop.

A brief history

In 2012, Northwestern University announced that it would be building a Visitor Center adjacent to its southern border with Evanston. The construction would doom a patch of wild land where cottonwood, hackberry and box elder trees, along with shrubby sand willows had grown up after Northwestern finished its lakefill in the 1960s. This scrubby patch of unattended land had become an unofficial bird sanctuary or a bird magnet, attracting migrating warblers and dragonflies, nesting Warbling Vireos and Baltimore Orioles and, of course, birdwatchers.

Under Evanston’s city ordinance, Northwestern was required to pay Evanston for every tree it removed, an amount that totaled $173,850. ENSBC member Libby Hill requested that the money be invested in a replacement sanctuary. She and Judy Pollock worked with city staff to determine the location. The logical decision was to take advantage of the remnant area and expand it onto Clark Street Beach, a total of 2 acres. The Evanston landscape architecture firm Kettlekamp and Kettlekamp was selected to draw up plans. Hearings were held, the idea was supported, the new sanctuary received a name, and planting took place during September and October 2015, just three years after the original proposal of the idea. The ENSBC board voted to adopt the Sanctuary to ensure that maintenance and monitoring and fiscal accounting would continue in cooperation with the City.

Today, Clark Street Bird Sanctuary is an active migratory bird stop, with over 200 bird specieis documented in e-Bird. Read more about birding Clark Street Bird Sanctuary.

Support Clark Street Bird Sanctuary

  • Volunteer. Volunteer days are from March through October, every Wednesday afternoon and even-numbered Saturdays. Volunteers plant, weed, water, learn plants, give tours. Bird Monitors check for visiting birds once a week during migration.

  • Donate to the sanctuary by selecting the Clark Street Beach Bird Sanctuary as the fund on our Donor page

  • Visit the CSBBS Facebook page.

Clark Street Beach Bird Sanctuary

Bird-Friendly Evanston

Bird-Friendly Evanston is an advocacy group that works with city planners, developers, and residents to make buildings in Evanston, Illinois, safer for migratory birds by reducing window collisions.

Its purpose is to make buildings in Evanston safer for the many hundreds of thousands of birds that migrate through our city each year. BFE consults with city planners, developers, building managers, architects and homeowners on ways to build bird-friendly buildings and solve bird hazards.

Bird-friendly Evanston was an essential proponent of the bird friendly ordinance adopted by the Evanston City Council in September, 2022. The ordinance may be found here: Ordinance 83-0-22/ Amending Title 4 of the City Code. "Building Regulations." by Adding Chapter 24 - Bird Friendly Building Design (civicweb.net)

As a result of the adoption of the ordinance plus the many other bird conservation activities in Evanston, the city was designated as a Bird City Illinois in 2022, the 6th city in the state to receive that designation.

Support Bird Friendly Evanston initiatives by selecting it as the fund on our Support page.