Wild of the Week: Special mid-week edition with a mudpuppy and a snowy owl spotted in unusual places

A mudpuppy caught in the south suburbs in January by Tommy Hall. | Provided

Wild of the Week is usually a Saturday feature, but we do a special WOTW in midweek for a change.

There were a couple sightings in unusual spots last week.

Jim Hall’s son Tommy caught a mudpuppy while ice fishing in the south suburbs. different than the usual Navy Pier or Wolf Lake. Mudpuppies are threatened in Illinois. The Illinois Natural History Survey notes that they are seldom seen other than by anglers.

Snowy owl at Midway Airport in January.

Snowy owls have been spotted along the lakefront since fall. Now add Midway Airport, where Tony Hammond was working Thursday when this one was spotted.

Snowy owls are fairly common winter visitors to the Chicago area and this seems to have been a good year for them.

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).