Who do I contact or does the DNR even care? Delnor hospital is doing construction and a red tail hawk is building a nest in the DELNOR sign that is schedualed to be torn down in three weeks. It has nested there at least the last two years. Its babies live in the area. I expect eggs shortly as I've seen it mating in the last couple weeks. What, if anything, does the hospital need to do before destroying the nest of a protected species? Without someone contacting hospital management, they WILL hit the nest with a backhoe, babies or not.

The hawks, their eggs and the nest are protected by state and federal law. I've contacted the IDNR district wildlife biologist who covers that area. Is the e-mail address you provided the best way to reach you? If there is a phone number that he can contact you at please send it to me at lkammin@illinois.edu. We'll see what we can do to protect the hawks.