Vignettes from outdoors
There’s no predicting when one will see odd sight in nature
Sometimes things just get wild and wacky. A loach is caught near the confluence of the North Branch of the Chicago River and the North Shore Channel. A beaver swims around Northerly Island. A dead black bear is found near the Indiana Toll Road in Elkhart County.
On Friday, George Watford messaged that a loach was caught near the former dam where the North Branch and the North Shore Channel meet at River Park. Watford, whom I had the good fortune to profile when he was 19 in 2008, said it was released because the angler didn’t realize it was a non-native.
Jason Duracka, the owner of Animal Island Pet Shop in Midlothian, agreed it was a loach, but he wasn’t sure what kind.
Joe LaMonica was biking at Northerly Island last Wednesday when he thought he saw a beaver. So he stopped on the bridge over the lagoon, located it, then took video of it swimming.
‘‘What a beautiful asset to our lakefront,’’ he emailed.
That’s the truth. Beavers have become a more common sight on the lakefront.
A dead black bear ‘‘in an advanced state of decomposition’’ was found near the Indiana Toll Road in Elkhart County last Wednesday, according to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
It’s the fifth black bear documented in modern Indiana and is a different one than the one seen rambling around southern Indiana earlier this year.
In memory
Capt. William ‘‘Augie’’ Ralph of Fishfood Charters was one of the youngest people to get his captain’s license some 37 years ago at 18. Capt. Ralph died last week. His wife, Lori, texted that details of arrangements should be coming soon. They have had the Salmon Stop bait/tackle shop in Waukegan for decades.
Recast
Paula Kosin caught my forgetting the redesignation of Indiana Dunes National Park in my column Saturday. Andrew Morkes had it designated correctly in his book, ‘‘Nature in Chicagoland.’’
Jet this
A crackdown on the speeding, disrespectful users of personal watercraft downtown on the Chicago River would be nice.
Boundary waters
The Superior National Forest on Saturday announced a closure of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness for at least seven days because of fire activity, extreme drought and limited resources.
Sturgeon
The full moon Monday traditionally is known as the Sturgeon Moon, according to ‘‘The Old Farmer’s Almanac.’’
Stray cast
The health of a river is inversely related to the number of dams on it. The same goes for the intelligence level of a community and the percentage of lawns with ‘‘Unmask Our Children’’ signs.