Owl, hawk vs squirrel, 87th St. slip memories: Notes, Chicago outdoors

By Dale Bowman

Notes from around Chicago outdoors.

FIELD NOTES

WILD OF THE WEEK

Eddie Pasiewicz photographed the red-tailed hawk above feasting on a squirrel Dec. 8.

Wild of the Week, the celebration of wild scenes around Chicago outdoors, runs when warranted on Sundays on the Sun-Times outdoors page. Send nominations by Facebook (Dale Bowman), Twitter (@BowmanOutside) or email

BIG NUMBER

38-4: Pounds-ounces of the Illinois-record lake trout, caught by Theodore Rullman on Aug. 22, 1999, on Lake Michigan.

DALE’S MAILBAG

Email: ‘‘It appears this owl is one of a pair! They were hooting this evening about 8:30-9:20 p.m. So we are in the territory of a mating pair of great horned owls and probably will have a nest and babies nearby!’’

— Dr. Elizabeth Pector

A: I find their hooting in the winter some of the most haunting sights and sounds in the wild.

LAST WORD

‘‘As kids, we would crawl under the Steel Mill fence and sneak back here to fish. It was our little getaway in South Chicago. Look at it now. I love it.’’ — Raul Garcia Jr., tweeting about the hundreds of people on any given day perch-fishing at the North Slip by Steelworkers Park (below).