Bartel Grassland Hosts 'Wild Neighbors Party'

Volunteer conservators at the Bartel Grassland are inviting all Southland residents to come to their seventh annual "Wild Neighbors Party" to plant indigenous plants, munch on cookies and help restore an Illinois wetland, organizers said.

Guests are expected to flock from Chicago Heights, Tinley Park, Homewood-Flossmoor, Orland Park, and elsewhere to the site near Flossmoor Road and Central Avenue.  However, say organizers, no human guest will travel as far as the preserve's feathered celebrity, the rare bobolink.

"They fly up here from Argentina to nest, and one of the last good nesting places for the bobolink and Henslow's sparrow," said Bartel site steward Dick Riner.  The bobolink, which sports a 'surfer dude' type hairdo of bright-yellow plumage, is unpopular in Argentina, he noted. "They poison them, shoot them, club them," said Riner. "They get into the rice crop."

Here in America, the bobolink's challenge is finding a large open grassland which will not mowed or harvested during the bird's nesting season, Riner said. "And they have many threats here, from coyotes, foxes, deer, small children who step on their nests."

"Early birds" who want to help out Mother Nature and plant some indigenous wetland plants can show up as early as 7 a.m. in old clothes, said Riner.  Around noon, there will be games for children, area falconers will demonstrate the skills of a peregrine falcon, and staff from the Sand Ridge Nature Center will exhibit a snake and turtle.

For lunch at the "Wild Neighbors Party," Riner added that his wife Peggy is "baking hundreds of cookies" and he plans to "burn some hot dogs, we're really good at that." The gathering is expected to last until 3:30 p.m.  For more information about the May 21 event, check out the Bartel Grassland website.