Chicago outdoors: Blue snow, loneliest lighthouse in N. A., sheds and woodcocks, declining Great Lakes ice

Chad Miller found shed antlers and saw woodcock in Lake County. | Provided

Notes come from all around Chicago outdoors.

SHED OF THE WEEK

I am truly envious of Chad Miller, who found five shed antlers (see top photo) and saw five woodcocks in four long walks in Lake County. Not sure if I am more impressed by the sheds or the woodcock.

SOTW, an occasional note on shed antlers found around Chicago outdoors, runs when worthy in the special two-page outdoors section in the Sun-Times Sports Saturday. To make submissions, email (BowmanOutside@gmail.com) or contact me on Facebook (Dale Bowman), Twitter (@BowmanOutside) or Instagram (@BowmanOutside).

WILD TIMES

U.S. COAST GUARD AUXILIARY

Next Sunday, March 28: Paddlers Guide to Safety, online, Terry Paggi, uscgaux3725@gmail.com

ILLINOIS PERMITS/SEASONS

Saturday, March 27, to next Sunday, March 28: First youth spring turkey season

DALE’S MAILBAG

Blue snow.

“You know the saying about yellow snow. Have you heard of blue snow? Please see attached.” Al Silcroft

A: It’s the first time I heard of this, but it is a thing. Closest I could find for a scientific explanation came from Frederick Schueler, an Ontario naturalist, in a post for Ontario Woodlot Association. We found “by trial feeding of goats and domestic rabbits, that this blue urine was caused by a diet of Rhamnus cathartica, the common, European, or cathartic buckthorn, an invasive alien shrub of old fields and forest edges. The urine of domestic buckthorn eaters is initially yellow or brown, but within ten minutes of exposure to sunlight turns bright blue in the snow or on paper. I’d been watching for rabbit-browsing of buckthorn since the winter of 1998-99, and the blue spots occurred the only time I saw them eating buckthorn.”

BIG NUMBER

22: Percentage of average annual decline in Great Lakes ice coverage over the last 50 years (much annual variability), according to Climate Central.

LAST WORD

“If you screw up badly enough in the Ninth District, they will send your butt out to ‘Stranded Rock.’ ”

Modern U.S. Coast Guardsmen, with a saying about Stannard Rock Lighthouse on Lake Superior, which has the longest distance separating a lighthouse from shore on the continent (25 miles from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula), via WKFR 103.3-FM. Read more at The Loneliest Place in North America is in Michigan