The shrubs are part of a massive volunteer effort at LaBagh, one of the city’s top birding locations, and the site of a rare broad-billed hummingbird sighting in 2021.
Over the past eight years, volunteers with the Forest Preserves of Cook County have planted 4,000 native shrubs at LaBagh, with help from the ornithological society, which has raised over $85,000 for the plants and protective enclosures.“LaBagh is an important migratory bird stopover site,” Krigbaum said. “It’s sort of the last stop for birds heading south — after that they hit the city.”
Photos on LaBagh Facebook pages show towering blue herons, cherry-red tanagers, lemon-yellow warblers, and sapphire-blue indigo buntings, as well as coyotes, mink, ducks, herons, snakes and raccoons. The person who is creating problems in this urban oasis appears to be “on a mission to eliminate fencing,” said Krigbaum.
“That’s of course my interpretation,” she said. “It’s a parlor game trying to figure out what the real motivation is.” The fences have been taken down in different parts of LaBagh, and just north of the site, at the Forest Glen Woods forest preserve, she said.At first, the fences, which are wire and light enough to be removed by one person, were folded in rectangles and leaned carefully against the poles that once held them up. But when volunteers reinstalled the fences, the response was less polite.