Notes come from all around Chicago outdoors and beyond.
DALE’S MAILBAG
“Anyone else have foxes on their roof? Mark Nowakowski
A: Simple answer, no, that is a first in my 25 years of doing this column. Nowakowski sent this explanation, “My wife [Lisa] was working from home [in Worth] and heard something on the roof. When she looked out that’s what she saw.”
WILD OF THE WEEK
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Dr. Elizabeth Pector had a good visit to McDowell Grove in late March and photographed multiple birds (golden-crowned kinglet, a flying wood duck, blue-wing teal) and took this good shot of a killdeer in flight.
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. 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
Boat America: Next Saturday, April 17: Chicago, Chris Strahlman, uscgachicago@gmail.com . . . Fox Lake, Winston Tumaneng, jugodan52@aol.com
ILLINOIS PERMITS/SEASONS
Turkey hunting: Saturday, April 10, to Thursday, April 15: Second season, south zone . . . Friday, April 16, to April 23: Third season, south . . . Monday, April 12, to Friday, April 16: First season, north
CLEANUP
Next Saturday, April 17: Busse Woods Litter Obliteration, meet at boating center, bring own garbage bags and gloves, 9 a.m.
BIG NUMBER
6,354: Steelhead through the St. Joseph River in Indiana in March, a record since the Indiana DNR switched to a video software capture in 2008, according to Lake Michigan biologist Ben Dickinson.
LAST WORD
“I remember back in the day, not sure on the year, catching smelt while in a snow squall. But when they were running, caught and in the bucket, the smelt smelled like cucumbers.”
Rick Rundle with a memory of when smelt were thick on the Chicago lakefront
