Article in: Birding

Flood at the CNP

Rockford’s been hit hard with a bunch of flood-inducing rainfall, an eerily similar event as what happened in September of last year. Last night we had somewhere between 5 and 7 inches of rain in a short period of time, flooding roads and creeks all over the city.

The Callaway Nature Preserve (CNP) has a tendency to take on water every time it rains and this was no exception.

But, we were luckier than last year’s flood that turned our street into a river, and turned some drivers into complete morons (or more than usual). There were some areas of the city where people had to be evacuated from their homes by boat.

I decided to spend my lunch hour checking out the Kishwaukee River, one of the four rivers that provide the best bird habitat in Winnebago County. I wasn’t too surprised to find it extremely high and full of debris, but it was a bit of a shock considering the day before there were bare sandbars at this same location.

The above mess was where I took this picture of a Great Blue Heron less than two weeks ago.

Another area I checked out was this little creek that flows into the Kishwaukee. Just yesterday there was a small puddle full of robins but today it was a muddy torrent.

There weren’t too many birds to be found and we are due for more storms tonight. But we did have a visit from a Ruby-throated Hummingbird yesterday and like to believe it was the same bird we saw motoring by this evening.

← Previous Next →

8 Comments or Trackbacks ↓ Jump to add comment ↓

larry says:

I don’t want a flood around here, but some heavy rain during the night might knock some shorebirds down in to local farm fields-that would be nice.-Interesting photos!

Posted on: August 8, 2007 @ 5:25 pm
Mary Carlson says:

I sure hope the waters have subsided by now, and hoping your rain will soak in instead of flowing. Did this rain give you cooler temps? Or is it hot and humid?

Posted on: August 8, 2007 @ 7:30 pm
The Birdfreak Team says:

The water in the yard went down fast but I’m not sure about the rest of the city. The rain cooled us down a little but it is still humid. Today I noticed the birds were much more active than the day before.

Posted on: August 8, 2007 @ 8:04 pm
Daniel says:

On a lighter note…nice photo of the great blue heron.
Something just came to my head….here in Honduras, areas that usually dont get flooded and suddenly and repeatedly do are areas that used to have wetlands around….any recent modifications to local ponds and such?

Posted on: August 10, 2007 @ 7:24 pm
The Birdfreak Team says:

Daniel – thanks about the photo… yes, there has been a lot of “development” in areas that would surely effect our area rivers. The river I photographed has always been a wild, untamed river so the flooding was somewhat natural but areas in the city that flooded were surely caused by poor zoning and construction in sensitive, former wetland areas.

Posted on: August 11, 2007 @ 6:55 am