Last fall when I was visiting my daughter in Illinois, one of the places we went to was Willowbrook Wildlife Center.
The Wildlife Center is located in Glen Ellyn. "It is a native wildlife rehabilitation facility that provides care and medical treatment to injured and orphaned wild animals. It also serves as a resource to teach DuPage County's residents about living in harmony with local wildlife."
It's a great place to take young children to see animals and also to learn more about them. There is no formal admission fee, but they do ask for a donation.
This is a large bull snake. He was quite large, but still a few inches short of one that my husband found in our basement one year! They are completely harmless, but they can grow quite big!
My favorite part of the indoor exhibit was the small birds. The large glass cage seen behind my daughter housed some of the birds, the rest are behind smaller glass windows. When the birds in the large cage saw us, they would start to sing to get our attention.
The center also provides educational programs throughout the year where children and families can learn about birds of prey, mammals, and insects.
Outside of the Visitor Center is a lovely nature path. We were there in the fall, and although the foliage was pretty, I'm anxious to go back in the summer and see their butterfly garden and flowers.
There was a koi pond in the butterfly garden.
They also had a lovely bridge going over a scenic stream. It's a lovely place to spend an afternoon.
The outside held all the birds of prey like this falcon. I think there was also some type of wild cat when we were there too, but he was sleeping at the time so I couldn't get a picture.
If you have small children, it's a great place to take them to get out of the house for a few hours as it's enjoyable for the whole family and it's free (but please put something in the donation box).
I see herons everyday at home as there is a lot of backwater from the Mississippi in my neighborhood. But it was nice to get this close to a heron. They usually fly away if I get to close at home.
The foliage on the grounds was just breath-taking. Alethea had a lot of fun walking on the dry, fallen leaves.
Alethea had so much fun she didn't want to get back in the car and go home. She ran up the front lawn and started to walk on the ledge as if it were a balanced beam.
And now, as promised in last week's travel post, I'm going to announce where I'm going in 2020! Nothing is finalized yet, but we hope to go to Smokey National Park in the spring, hitting the Columbus Zoo and The Creation Museum/Ark Encounter in the same week. I don't know if it will be possible to hit all three places in one week . We're still trying to figure the logistics of it all now. In the fall we will be going to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. I am so nervous about bears! The Smokies have a ton of black bears. I just watched a documentary on the Smokies on Hulu and did you know there are 1,500 black bears in the park, or two black bears for every mile of the park? That's a lot to me. And Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons have grizzlies. That makes me even more nervous. I'll definitely be buying bear spray repellant when we hike there. I'd love any advice on how not to be afraid of the bears so I can enjoy hiking in both places.
Have a Great Day! Amy
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