Hen of the Woods to Big Box Outdoors: Notes on Chicago outdoors

By Dale Bowman

Notes from around Chicago outdoors.

FIELD NOTES

MUSHROOM OF THE WEEK

Ken Gortowski emailed:

The conditions of the past week seemed to call for a couple of hours of fungus hunting on Sunday and I was right. Different types sprouting up all over the forest floor and rotting wood. Like usual, the search is what I like and I have no real interest in ever identifying what I find. This time of year I always keep a lookout for hen and chicken of the woods and I found a couple of hen of the woods about the size of footballs. Di had just made a big pot of home made cream of chicken and turkey soup and I’ve been chopping up the hen, sauteing them in butter and mixing them in with the soup. Some Toll House crackers to go with. It’s been good eating.

Mushroom of the Week, a celebration of wild mushrooms of many sorts around Chicago outdoors runs very irregularly on Sundays on the Sun-Times outdoors page. Send nominations by Facebook (Dale Bowman), Twitter (@BowmanOutside) or email (straycasts@sbcglobal.net).

WILD TIMES

HUNTER SAFETY

Oct. 29-30: Elburn, phil-joanne@juno.com

Nov. 5-6: Morris, rainbowcouncil.org, click Event Registration

DUCKS UNLIMITED

(Click here for the general list of Illinois DU events)

PHEASANTS FOREVER

(Click here for general list of Illinois PF events)

FISH GATHERINGS

Tuesday: Biologist Frank Jakubicek on northern Illinois muskies, Chicagoland Muskie Hunters chapter of Muskies Inc., Giuseppe’s La Cantina, Des Plaines, 7:30 p.m., chicagolandmuskiehunters.org/meetingschedule.asp

Tuesday: Top 3 captains, Salmon Unlimited,Elk Grove Village VFW,, 7 p.m., salmonunlimitedinc.com

Wednesday: Dave Floberg on “Catching Football Sized Geneva Smallmouth,’’ Lake Geneva Fishing Club, Cabela’s, Hoffman Estates, 6:30 p.m., lakegenevafishingclub.com

Wednesday, Oct. 12: Dave Van Dorn, Fox River Valley chapter of Muskies Inc., Schaumburg Golf Club, 7 p.m., frvmuskie.com

Thursday: Dan Basore, Riverside Fishing Club, LaGrange American Legion, 6:30 p.m., RiversideFishingClub.com

OPEN HOUSE

Saturday, Oct. 15: Forest Preserve District of DuPage County’s Urban Stream Research Center, Blackwell Forest Preserve, Warrenville, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., (630) 933-7200 or dupageforest.org

FALL TROUT

Saturday, Oct. 15: Nearby sites for fall trout include in Cook County (Axehead, Belleau, Busse North, Green, Horsetail and Wolf; DuPage (Silver, Pickerl, Grove); Kankakee (Bird Park Quarry, Rock Creek); Lake (Banana, Sand at Illinois Beach SP); McHenry (Spring Grove Hatchery Pond); Will (Strini, Van Horn Woods)

ILLINOIS SEASONS

Saturday, Oct. 15: Waterfowl seasons, north zone, open

Saturday-Sunday, Oct. 15-16: Youth waterfowl hunt, central zone

WINGSHOOTING

Oct. 15-16: St. Charles Sportsmen’s Club, Elburn, (847) 309-1093 or joemigalla5@gmail.com

DALE’S MAILBAG

Q: “Comparing the Cubs and Sox to trout, rainbows and lakers respectively, have any (other) humorless pedants contacted you to point out that lake trout are actually chars, genus salvelinus? And that as members of genus onchorhynchus rainbows are most closely related to Pacific salmon? Just wondering?’’ Pete Lamar

A: Try to be a smartass about Chicago baseball and somebody such as Lamar, an occasional hunting companion, proves even smarter.

BIG NUMBER

1-877-2DNRLAW, 1-877-236-7529: TIP number for conservation violation in both forms.

LAST WORD

“This can’t be good for the sportsman. How is this not a monopoly?’’

Lowell Nanney, on Facebook, in response to the AP news story of Bass Pro buying Cabela’s

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