Chicago outdoors: City fawn, "Fishful Thinking," odd city squirrel, turtle crossings

A very young fawn in LaBagh Woods. | Credit: Paul vriend

Notes come from all around Chicago outdoors.

WILD OF THE WEEK

Paul Vriend comes through with another startling photo, of a fawn hidden at LaBagh Woods. “This is the smallest deer I’ve ever seen, just a little north of a rabbit, large on the cute factor, however,” he emailed.

WOTW, the celebration of wild stories and photos around Chicago outdoors, runs most weeks in the special two-page outdoors section in the Sun-Times Sports Saturday. Submit nominations by message on Facebook (Dale Bowman), on Twitter (@BowmanOutside) and Instagram (@BowmanOutside) or email (BowmanOutside@gmail.com).

WILD TIMES

FISH GATHERINGS

Wednesday, June 10: Gerard Urbanozo and Rob Wendel, “Angling in Small Watercraft,” Lake Geneva Fishing Club, 6 p.m., check lakegenevafishingclub.com whether live or online

HALL OF FAME

July 8: Deadline to submit nominations for the 2020 class of the Illinois Outdoor Hall of Fame, call (217) 785-2003 or go to ilconservation.org.

ILLINOIS PERMITS/SEASONS

Through June 15: Perch fishing on Lake Michigan closed.

Through June 30: Second lottery, Illinois firearm/muzzleloader deer permit applications

DALE’S MAILBAG

Odd-colored squirrel in Portage Park.

“This squirrel is running around in my daughter’s neighborhood, Portage Park, She sent me these picture. I thought you might find him interesting.” Frank Girardi

A: I found them interesting enough to check Project Squirrel (projectsquirrel.org/index.shtml), which had this nugget: ``Sciurus carolinensis is commonly known as the grey squirrel but, just like people, they can have different hair colors. Some are black, some are white, sometimes they even have a bit of rusty coloration.’’

BIG NUMBER

45: Percent of increase in turtle crossing reports in the last year in the Wisconsin DNR’s Wisconsin Turtle Conservation Program (wiatri.net/inventory/witurtles/)

LAST WORD

“That would be such a nice thing to do, especially for the people that ‘hate’ on both sides of the political spectrum. Take a day off and go fishing. Calm down, take a deep breath and examine the ways we could make things better in our country, then do something positive about it. I know, it’s Fishful thinking.”

Lloyd DeGrane, my favorite current Chicago photographer, commenting on Facebook