Outdoors
The cicadas are coming, and these glorious insects fill me with wonder.
Colin Lund earns Fish of the Week for a big flathead catfish (first one sent in this year) caught from the Kankakee River on Monday.
“Things people don’t have to prep for and don’t think are a big deal are real-life issues for us,” said Laura Florek, a Northbrook mom of two young adults with autism.
Louis Morgan bagged a big tom turkey on public land in northern Illinois to earn Turkey of the Week.
An Indiana record yellow perch, green herons at Rosehill cemetery and finding morel mushrooms set against a Christopher Morel home run, noted in the Sun-Times used as a time stamp, are among the notes from around Chicago outdoors and beyond.
The hugely popular Chicago event brought thousands of swimmers to Lake Michigan — but as the viral event grew, so did safety concerns.
Opening day of fishing on Wednesday was a delight and a chance to savor the bounty and wonders of Hennepin & Hopper Lakes at Sue and Wes Dixon Waterfowl Refuge.
For decades, the department and many local law enforcement agencies have erroneously sided with landowners who want to keep the public far from their private lands.
Clyde Swan catching a big northern pike drives home a reminder that May is big-fish month in Illinois.
Experts at the Morton Arboretum say it’s important to protect any trees planted in the past three years with fine mesh netting.
Leading this sprawling raw-file Midwest Fishing Report are spring signs on Lake Michigan and inland waters plus the perch closure beginning May 1 on Illinois’ Lake Michigan waters and Wisconsin’s general inland opener coming Saturday.
Tony Farinella Jr. had a good morning on opening day of Illinois’ second season for spring turkey in Jo Daviess County.
Dave Strobel caught and released his personal-best walleye Thursday at Heidecke Lake.
Photos of pileated woodpeckers in the Palos area and an eastern milksnake found at Lemont Quarries are among the notes from around Chicago outdoors and beyond.
The appearance of the 17-year cicadas this year will mark the fourth emergence of the red-eyed, orange-veined creatures in my lifetime — thus, my fourth cicada birthday, Scott Fornek, an editor at the Sun-Times, writes.
The crane was captured and relocated by the International Crane Foundation and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
First bison babies of year born at Fermilab: ‘Calving season is the most rewarding time of the year’
Two bison were born Friday at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia. The facility’s 30-acre pasture has long been home to the grazing mammals.
Matt Mullady is known as a Kankakee River expert and former guide, but he has a very important artistic side, too.
Riverside Fishing Club’s Fishing Tackle & Outdoors Swap Meet on Saturday and the continuing North American Vintage Decoy & Sporting Collectibles Show are Go & Show this week.
Stacey Greene-Fenlon became the first woman and first person not connected to Chicago government to chair the Chicago fishing advisory committee on Thursday.