Notes come from around Chicago outdoors and beyond.
WILD OF THE WEEK
Dean Pearson photographed this black-crowned night heron on a dock line last Saturday on the Chicago River. The growth of those birds on the Chicago River has been one of the area’s better nature stories.
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).
DALE’S MAILBAG
“Have you ever seen anything like this? Some kind of a weird orange mushroom?” Andy Knapp
A: Before I could answer, he found it was a stinkhorn, one of the more distinctive and phallic of our common mushrooms. They serve a vital role in breaking down organic matter.
A local stinkhorn.
Andy Knapp
BIG NUMBER
More than 10,000: Elk in Kentucky (“highest elk population of any state east of the Mississippi River”), since a restoration between 1997 and 2002, according to the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.
LAST WORD
But never met this Fellow Attended or alone Without a tighter Breathing And Zero at the Bone.
Emily Dickinson, ending to her snake poem, opening with “A narrow Fellow in the Grass”
WILD TIMES
CONSERVATION WORLD
Through Aug. 21: Located in the northwest corner of the Illinois State Fairgrounds, Springfield, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. daily during the Illinois State Fair. Click here for details.
HUNTER SAFETY
Next Saturday, Aug. 20,-Aug. 21: Momence, (815) 472-4900
Sept. 17-18: Joliet, (815) 727-4811
Sept. 17-18: Momence, (815) 472-4900
WINGSHOOTING CLINICS
Next Saturday, Aug. 20,-Aug. 21: Aurora Sportsmen’s Club, Waterman, hunterwsclinic@gmail.com
ARCHERY DRAWING
Monday, Aug. 15: Deadline, drawing for archery deer permits at William Powers SRA. Go to https://huntillinois.org/sites/william-w-powers-sra/
FISH GATHERINGS
Wednesday, Aug. 17: Biologist Dan Makauskas on Lake Michigan, South Side Muskie Hawks, Vince’s Restaurant and Pizzeria, Chicago, southsidemuskiehawks.org
Thursday, Aug. 18: Ken “Husker” O’Malley, “Cooling Lakes, Rivers and Local Ponds,” Fish Tales Fishing Club, Worth Township offices, Alsip, 7 p.m., fishtalesfishingclub.com
ILLINOIS PERMITS
Tuesday, Aug. 16-Aug. 31: Applications, public goose and duck permits, first lottery
Friday, Aug. 19: Final day, third lottery, firearm and muzzleloader deer permit applications
