Chicago outdoors: Eating invasive carp, William Least Heat-Moon, coho tragedy recalled, hummingbird

Notes come from around Chicago outdoors and beyond.

WILD OF THE WEEK

Ken “Husker” O’Malley caught this hummingbird “fueling up for the long road trip ahead.”

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).

WILD TIMES

PHEASANTS FOREVER

Thursday, Oct. 7: DuPage County dinner, Abbington Distinctive Banquets, Glen Ellyn, Contact Jake Bartels, bartels.jake@gmail.com or (312) 771-7283.

HUNTER SAFETY

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

LUNCHTIME LECTURES

Monday, October 4 : Rachel Havrelock, professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago who directs the Freshwater Lab, an environmental humanities initiative focused on the North American Great Lakes and environmental justice., Bridgehouse Museum on Chicago Riverwalk, free, noon-12:45 p.m., bridgehousemuseum.org/events

WINGSHOOTING CLINICS

Saturday-next Sunday, Oct. 9-10: Elburn, click here to register , info at scscwingshooting@gmail.com or (847)309-1093

ILLINOIS SEASONS

Today, Oct. 2: Early catch-and-release trout season opens at a few select sites, closest is Rock Creek at Kankakee River State Park

DALE’S MAILBAG

“Why on earth are these not eaten? I’m told its a firm, white meat. Chefs of the Food Channel showed how well it turns out.” Thomas Maru on the column last week about netting invasive carp

A: There have been attempts to create markets for years, without much success. That is one reason they are rebranding invasive carp in an effort to increase the market.

BIG NUMBER

1,000: Estimate of small boats fishing for coho on Sept. 23, 1967, when a squall brought 25-foot waves and beached or capsized hundreds in the Frankfort River Platte area of northern Lake Michigan, via U.S. Coast Guard Great Lakes Facebook page.

LAST WORD

“Somewhere lives a bad Cajun cook, just as somewhere must live one last ivory-billed woodpecker. For me, I don’t expect ever to encounter either one.”

William Least Heat-Moon, while driving through Louisiana in “Blue Highways: A Journey into America.” (Ivory-billed woodpeckers were one of 23 species declared extinct Wednesday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service).