Watching hummingbirds, seeing a new outdoors show, waiting on kings and hunting headline this Wild Weekend Wandering around Chicago outdoors.
I have a packed weekend.
Tentatively, my wife and I are supposed to take a fun ride on Lake Michigan this afternoon. But the weather and waves may change that.
Then Saturday I am at the Ultimate Outdoor Show with my daughter.
On Sunday, I cover the Chicago Half Marathon for the Sun-Times. After the Bears game, I hope to do some fishing with the kids. If not, I may watch the sun set over a dove field.
On Monday, I have to be on the lakefront for a Bank of America Chicago Marathon event, so I may double down and do some casting for salmon in the early evening.
But to the wandering and wild.
WATCHING HUMMINGBIRDS:From what readers have told me, I know I am not alone in taking great enjoyment in watching hummingbirds feed around flowers and feeders.
My youngest son has been giving me much help in trying to add to my shots of hummingbirds, by announcing when he sees a hummer.
As the photo above suggests, I need to get a better shot. But that is half the fun, the trying to get a better shot.
NEW SHOW: The inaugural Ultimate Outdoor Show is Saturday and Sunday at River Road Park in Kankakee. That’s just a couple miles north of exit 308 off I-57. I am emceeing Saturday morning by the banks of the Kankakee River with the Mac’s Tackle high school fishing team.
Click here for my take on things.
DOVE HUNTING:Dove hunting at area public sites is wide open now. I was surprised how many birds were flying and how much shooting there was yesterday at Iroquois SWA. It was good enough, that I may slip out another morning or evening to get it a shot.
Put it this way, I took the photo below as I unloaded my car yesterday.
SHORELINE KINGS: I say waiting on kings, but the repeated blows this week have slowed fishing and salmon on the lakefront.
I still think there might be a chance of a 30-pound Chinook for shore fishermen this fall, or at least some well into the 20s, if the right fisherman able to handle them latches into them.
WADING:Rivers are low and very wadeable. The Kankakee closes in on the low levels of last year. It is so low that Norm Minas said earlier this week it is now really important to pay attention to your shadows.
PERCH FISHING: Perching had been very good from the Ditch to Michigan City in Indiana, but the blows scattered fish and slowed that.
EARLY GOOSE SEASON:Early Canada geese is open. Those with water access have shooting. Otherwise, corn and bean harvest has not started in our end of the state.
SQUIRREL HUNTING: Most public sites in northeast Illinois are now open for squirrel hunting through September, then close again on Oct. 1 with the start of bowhunting for deer.
In Indiana, squirrel hunting is also open. One nearby spot, which sometimes draws dozens of hunters (though many are assumed to be scouting for deer), is Willow Slough Fish and Wildlife Area.
DEER SCOUTING:Guys are getting out and checking on deer. i think that is one of the things some of the early squirrel hunters are doing, too, as much as anything. I am seeing guys already working on stands.
DUCK BLINDS: The other thing I have seen guys doing is building duck and goose blinds. It is that time of year.
PERMITS:Random daily draws for deer hunting run through Monday. Go to http://www.dnr.illinois.gov/calendar/Pages/DuckGooseFirstLottery.aspx
The second lottery for duck and goose reservations runs through Tuesday. Go http://dnr.illinois.gov/OnLineHuntingApplication/duck/duckapp2.aspx.
