Outdoors
A wonderful time of birding and wandering around a milk run of birding sites around the Palos area came together a week ago with Joel Greenberg and Tom Schrader.
Changes coming for the Chicago Fishing Advisory Committee, Jeff Banks finding buckeyes, Moe Perez with a classic fall mushroom in Humboldt Park and John Krizek catching and releasing a big lake sturgeon at the Wisconsin Dells are among the notes from around Chicago outdoors and beyond.
About 300 swimmers participated in the event, marveling at the clean water and festive atmosphere. Event organizers say they’ll donate $100,000 to ALS research and $50,000 to fund swim lessons for about 2,000 youths at the Salvation Army’s Kroc Center.
Birding from atop the climbing wall at Steelworkers Park was quite the way to kick off the Urban Birding Festival last weekend.
Darryl Turner with a big blue catfish from LaSalle Lake, a walkingstick in northwest Indiana and a question about a walking leaf are among the notes from around Chicago outdoors and beyond.
Stacey Greene-Fenlon is stepping down after the November meeting of the Chicago Fishing Advisory Committee. And questions from Nightmare Fishing’s Wayne Hankins about access at 63rd drive home the need for the committee.
Changes in the natural world have come and more are on the way around the unnatural world of Big Marsh, Indian Ridge Marsh and Square Marsh.
A big PB flathead catfish from the Fox River, first report of sighting of a woolly bear and the Pawpaw Fest coming next Saturday are among the notes from around Chicago outdoors and beyond.
Consumptive pursuits and non-consumptive ones seem like divergent paths to enjoying the outdoors, but many of us walk both paths.
Catching the same muskie twice in Minnesota on the way back to Chicago and photographing a resting monarch in Tuesday’s fog and chill are among the notes from around Chicago outdoors and beyond.
I enjoy the quixotic quests of others in the outdoors and my own, I just completed a quest to catch my first spotted bass in Illinois.
The surprise catch of a gar on the Kankakee River, a block-party sighting of a Cooper’s hawk and an ethical question on non-native mushrooms are among the notes from around Chicago outdoors and beyond.
Hadley Valley Preserve in Will County became an even more special place with funds for restoring Spring Creek and its surrounding area coming from the O’Hare Modernization Mitigation Project.
A salute to youth and late-summer largemouth bass before school began and mushrooms responding to recent heavy rains are among the notes from around Chicago outdoors and beyond.
Patricia “TrishadaFisha” Cole brought together fishing and family in a full life, and her granddaughter’s fictional children’s book brings it all together.
Thunderstorms brought rain showers, high winds and hail to parts of Chicago and the western and southern suburbs Saturday night. Sunday’s high will be 82, with a 20% chance of showers. Rain delayed the start of the Savannah Bananas game by an hour and 45 minutes.
A turkey vulture fledge near Wrigleyville, a big crappie from Lake County and a question on Canada geese and sandhill cranes are among the notes from around Chicago outdoors and beyond.
The Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal was dug to help change the flow of the Chicago River when it opened in 1900. Now the public is being asked for suggested monikers that better reflect the canal’s current and future uses.
Justin Moore is leading a study on the reintroduction of Franklin’s ground squirrels at Kankakee Sands in Indiana, and early results look hopeful.
Muskrats loving duckweed, a “Trash Panda” raccoon in Palos, the new head of the Illinois Natural History Survey, doubling on muskies for Fish of the Week and a father-and-son comeback at the South Shore Bass Open are among the notes from around Chicago outdoors and beyond.