Chicago outdoors: Great horned owl, carp-of-the-day snark, archery turkeys and Bird of the Year

Great horned owls, carp-of-the-day snark, archery turkey harvest in Illinois and the ABA’s Bird of the Year are among the notes around Chicago outdoors.

SHARE Chicago outdoors: Great horned owl, carp-of-the-day snark, archery turkeys and Bird of the Year
Great horned owl in the suburbs. Provided by Joe Spence

Great horned owl in the suburbs.

Provided by Joe Spence

Notes come from all around Chicago outdoors.

WILD OF THE WEEK

“This guy and his mate [above] were nesting in my heavily populated condo community until their nest was blown away in a windstorm,” Joe Spence emailed. “Having great horned owls in the neighborhood was a very cool thing. I have not seen them since the nest went down.”

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

HUNTER SAFETY

March 13-14: Bridgeview, (708) 594-1818

Feb. 18 and 20: Bonfield, (815) 635-3198

ICE FISHING DERBIES

Saturday, Feb. 6: Island Lake Lions Ice Fishing Derby, 7 a.m.02 p.m., headquartered at Eastway Park, adults $15, 15 and younger, $5.

Feb 13-14: Northern Illinois Conservation Club’s 61st annual Ice Fishing Derby, Chain O’Lakes, mynicc.org/event-info/fishin-derby/.

MIDEWIN

Wednesday, Feb. 10: Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie Silver Anniversary celebration (virtual), Bill Kurtis and executive chef Sarah Stegner headline, 6 p.m., click here to register.

WILD THINGS

Feb.. 19-21 and 26-28: Wild Things 2021 Conference will held virtually, $15 per weekend or $30 for entire conference, wildthingscommunity.org.

BIRDING

Friday, Feb. 12, to Feb. 15: Great Backyard Bird Count, birdcount.org

FISH GATHERING

Wednesday, Feb. 10: Tony Grant and Gregg Thomas, ZOOM meeting Fox River Valley chapter of Muskies, Inc., 7 p.m., frvmuskie.com

ILLINOIS PERMITS

Tuesday, Feb. 9: Final day, third lottery, spring turkey permits

DALE’S MAILBAG

Ed Buric with a carp from the Des Plaines River. Provided photo

Ed Buric with a carp from the Des Plaines River.

Provided

“Carp of the day.” Email from Ed Buric

A: I have the best readers. Buric reacted to the Final Word last week: “ `Carpe Diem’ does not mean `fish of the day.’ “ Buric caught the carp pictured from the Des Plaines River with a spinning rod he made himself at Corens Rod and Reel Service in Chicago.

BIG NUMBER

783: Wild turkeys harvested during Illinois’ 2020-2021 fall archery turkey Season, up from 740 in ‘19-20. For ‘20-21, 24,187 permits were sold, up from 22,728 in ‘19-20.

LAST WORD

“The ABA is proud that the Pileated Woodpecker, emblem of both the wild woods and the adaptability of birds to anthropogenically altered spaces, is our 2021 Bird of the Year.”

American Bird Association, on its BOTY, including some stunning artwork by Juan Travieso’s with stark red and fuchsia lines. For more, go to aba.org/2021-bird-of-the-year-pileated-woodpecker-dryocopus-pileatus/

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