CHANGE ON THE WAY
Signs of the switch in seasons were everywhere late last week
Larry Conn pointed to a black caterpillar climbing the concrete wall Thursday at 31st Street Harbor at the end of an outside meeting of the Chicago Fishing Advisory Committee.
That was the first of a crush of signs of seasonal change/folklore myths over the two days before the autumn equinox Saturday.
The idea that dark woolly bears are a harbinger of winter doom has been debunked, but I can’t help myself and check them as fall approaches. Here’s the thing: I’ve seen them from allwhite to the all-black one at 31st Street Harbor. There are different species. I suspect the one we saw was a giant leopard moth caterpillar, not an allblack banded woolly bear.
The cavalcade of caterpillars continued that evening.
My wife showed me the first black swallowtail caterpillar crawling and eating on the dill she plants each year for them. She had given up hope of seeing one this year.
Then Friday morning, in unexpected rain, I joined Paul Strand at public land open to mushroom hunting south of Chicago. He had a hen-of-the-woods spot to share.
Strand, who recently retired, had a long tradition of using his birthday as a personal day to hunt hen-of-the-woods with great success. I liked the staff Strand had fashioned from a broken stiff fishing rod, perfect for lifting vegetation to see hidden mushrooms, and he had a point on it for picking up trash.
Mushroom hunting is allowed at many Illinois Department of Natural Resources sites (check first) but is prohibited at area forest preserves, park districts and dedicated nature preserves. You need permission before hunting on private property.
We could tell by a faint trail leading to his spots and by finding one already cut that somebody had beaten us. But we had other bounty.
We found chicken-of-the-woods, which I did not pick because it looked older and beaten up. But I cut from the spread of honey mushrooms we found.
As we looked at secondary spots near other old oaks, I saw my first fallen hedge apples of the year. I kept one to take home to my wife.
Hedge apples are the fruit of the nonnative Osage orange, once used to make fencerows.
I have a long tradition of bringing one home for my wife every time I find one. She half-believes hedge apples have magical powers. More possible is that they are a natural way to discourage insects and bugs.
I stand by what I wrote about my tradition years ago: ‘‘I sometimes feel like a beaver lugging a gnawed downed birch back to his mate.’’
I sauteed the honeys in garlic and olive oil as a side, garnished with homegrown parsley, for Friday pizza night.
Hall of Fame
Two Chicago-area people — Deanna Bazan (‘‘The Outdoor Ed. Lady’’) and Ed Pfaff (Montgomery village forestry supervisor) — are among five to be inducted next spring into the Illinois Outdoor Hall of Fame, the Illinois Conservation Foundation announced.
Invasive reminder
Work by Loyola graduate student Alex Quebbemann and Prof. Reuben Keller led to confirmation of invasive starry stonewort (starrystonewort.org/ about/) at Jackson Harbor. One patch covered at least several hundred square meters. That’s a sharp reminder to clean your boat thoroughly before moving to another water (transportzero.org).
Illinois hunting
Archery season for deer and turkey opens Sunday.
Fall color
I read my first fall color report from Wisconsin last week (travelwisconsin.com/fall-color-report). Hurley County was already at 65% and Merrill at 55%.
Stray cast
Listening to Bears talk begins to feel like cleaning water fleas from lines.