Chicago outdoors: Backyard coyote giving hell to raccoon, red/gray fox question, trout, William Faulkner

A backyard trail cam catching a coyote giving a raccoon hell, a question about red and gray foxes, the number of trout stocked seasonally inland in Illinois and William Faulkner from his great novella, “The Bear,” are among the notes from around Chicago outdoors and beyond.

SHARE Chicago outdoors: Backyard coyote giving hell to raccoon, red/gray fox question, trout, William Faulkner
A backyard trail cam caught a coyote giving a raccoon hell. Credit: Brian DeKoatz

A backyard trail cam caught a coyote giving a raccoon hell.

Brian DeKoatz

Notes come from all around Chicago outdoors, and beyond.

WILD OF THE WEEK

Brian DeKoatz found this scene of his backyard trail cam in Lake Barrington, “Look who showed up for corn on the cob. . . . That’s a coyote giving the raccoon hell.”

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).

HUNTER SAFETY

Oct. 30-31:Elgin, hsmagno48@gmail.com. . . Morris, click scoutingevent.com/702-51491

FISH GATHERINGS

Tuesday, Oct. 19: Fishing Tales Guide Service’s Ken Kuhnle, Arlington Anglers, Poplar Creek Banquets, Hoffman Estates, 6:30 p.m., arlingtonanglers.com

Thursday, Oct. 21: Forest Preserves of Cook County fisheries biologist on Southwest Palos and Tinley fishing ponds, Fish Tales Fishing Club, Worth Township offices, Alsip, 7 p.m., fishtalesfishingclub.com

ILLINOIS PERMITS/SEASONS

Today, Oct. 16: Fall trout season opens statewide. Click here for more.

Today, Oct. 16: Woodcock hunting opens

Through Sunday, Oct. 17: North zone youth waterfowl

Tuesday, Oct. 19: Over-the-counter sales of remaining deer permits go on sale

Saturday, Oct. 23: North zone, duck and Canada goose season opens

Next Saturday, Oct. 23, to Oct. 24: Central zone youth waterfowl hunt

DALE’S MAILBAG

“We have seen at least one red and one gray [fox], prancing down the street midday. Could they be a breeding pair? Joe Dillmann, Libertyville.

A: I double checked with wildlife biologist Stefanie Fitzsimons, who messaged. “It was probably a red in a different color phase. And they definitely don’t pair up. I haven’t heard of a grey fox running around up here for a while. It’s possible they saw a gray but they definitely don’t mate with reds.”

BIG NUMBER

File photo of rainbow trout. Credit: Illinois Department of Natural Resources

File photo of rainbow trout.

Crédit: Illinois Department of Natural Resources

More than 80,000: Rainbow trout stocked by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources for the fall season, which opens today.

LAST WORD

“Then he saw the bear. It did not emerge, appear; it was just there, immobile, solid, fixed in the hot dappling of the green, not as big as he had dreamed it, but as big as he had expected, bigger, dimensionless, against the dappled obscurity, looking at him where he sat quietly on the log and looked back at it. “

William Faulkner, “The Bear” novella (my pick for “The Great American Novel”) in “Go Down, Moses.”

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