Chicago outdoors: Big buck in velvet, suburban nature report, Lake Michigan muskie, river safety noteDale Bowmanon July 10, 2021 at 2:40 pm

Notes come from Chicago outdoors and beyond.

BUCK OF THE WEEK: UNPLUGGED

Roy Wick emailed, “My neighbor made the paper with his velvet antler deer. I have his Father…lol.” Apparently there are good genes in Tinley Park.

BOTW Unplugged, the celebration of live big bucks around Chicago outdoors, runs as apt in the special two-page outdoors section in the Sun-Times Sports Saturday. To make submissions, email [email protected] or contact me on Facebook (Dale Bowman), Twitter (@BowmanOutside) or Instagram (@BowmanOutside).

WILD TIMES

FISHING DERBY

Through July 18: New dates of the postponed Kankakee River Fishing Derby, kankakeefishingderby.com

OPEN HOUSE

Tuesday, July 13 and Wednesday, July 14: Public review of draft Kankakee National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area Visioning Document, 3:30-7:30 p.m. both days, Tuesday at Rehoboth Mennonite Church lawn, Pembroke Township, Wednesday, Island Park, Momence

CHARITY

Next Saturday, July 17: Cast for a Cure, benefiting Phil’s Friends, cancer foundation, Musky Tales, Chain O’Lakes, frvmuskie.com/event/cast-for-a-cure/

FISH GATHERING

Tuesday, July 13: Capt. Dan Wheeler, Salmon Unlimited, Thornwood Restaurant & Lounge, Wood Dale, 7 p.m., salmonunlimitedinc.com

U.S. COAST GUARD AUXILIARY

Next Saturday, July 17: Waukegan, Curt Schumacher, [email protected]

DALE’S MAILBAG

“Seeing a few monarchs now, and a very few skippers. Only two fireflies in the front yard last night, making me wonder how the birds are to manage without bugs. While we do not spray nor do our immediate neighbors when they spray a couple yards over it drifts over on us, smelling terrible. I am happy to see one honey bee a day, if that. I did see a callimorpha moth in the backyard two weeks back or so. While we have lived here 40 some years that was the first one I’d seen. Few Japanese beetles this year, neither black nor yellow swallowtail butterflies so far. A few bumble bees, few little natives, and only a very few June bugs this year. Sigh.” Georgiana

A: That’s the kind of local world observation that we need more of.

BIG NUMBER

Provided

36 1/2: Inches of a muskie caught in 188 feet of water Tuesday on Capt. Jerry Costabile’s Resolute Charters out of Kenosha, Wisconsin.

LAST WORD

“You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it.”

Paulo Coelho, as noted here in brainyquote.com

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