MORRIS, Unwell. — You want glasses to stroll a prairie in winter. Something — security glasses, sun shades, eyeglasses — will do. They’re to not defend your eyes from the endless drabness of prairies in winter however to maintain dried stems of bluestem and Indian grass from poking your eyes. It’s preferable to get whacked on the cheek by a dried rattlesnake grasp ball than to be poked within the eye by a stem.
You actually should wade right into a prairie to know the magnitude of it totally. You’re feeling like an insignificant dot on the panorama, a personality roaming in a Laura Ingalls Wilder novel.
That’s much more true in winter, with the browns, tans and soiled shades of white. Probably the most colour on Goose Lake Prairie got here from the fluorescent-orange flags deer hunters are required to put on.
I drew a deer-hunting allow for the antlerless-only CWD hunt at Goose Lake Prairie/Heidecke Lake. The primary half was Thursday by way of Sunday; the second half is Jan. 17-19.
On Saturday, after I was capable of go, one other hunter and I shared one area. He deliberate to hunt north, so I went south.
With open water on Heidecke, Canada geese, white-fronted geese, snow geese, mallards and lots of geese I couldn’t determine flew closely for the primary three hours after what handed for daybreak on a grey day. The one notable wildlife I encountered was a marsh hawk (northern harrier).
Whereas strolling a few miles to familiarize myself with a bit I had not hunted, I solely noticed one pile of deer scat and some tracks.
Contemplating solely two of us have been on this vastness, I figured it nonetheless was finest to hunt the prairie, hoping to leap a deer.
About 100 yards in, the endless prairie overwhelmed me.
I by no means might simply sit outside and soak it up. I wanted to do one thing — looking, climbing, birding, foraging — however I had a breakthrough Saturday. As an previous English main, I name it an epiphany; psychologists would possibly name it a breakthrough.
Deep within the prairie by a dry pothole, I sat in my camouflage chair and was swallowed up. For the primary time, I appreciated simply sitting there and absorbing the stillness and vastness.
Possibly I lastly have gotten sufficiently old to attain oneness with the wild world. For me, it was time.
First-day hikes
You don’t should do something organized to do a first-day hike. Some concepts on the New Yr’s Day custom are in a weblog from ilstateparks.org, together with organized occasions at William Powers State Recreation Space and Illinois Seaside State Park.
Wild issues
John Heneghan reported 18 useless geese beneath the Yorkville Dam on the Fox River and a dozen useless round Aurora to the Illinois Division of Pure Sources. In case you discover useless birds on this avian flu outbreak, examine particulars at dnr.illinois.gov/press-release.30768.html about what to do. . . . Andy Hansen messaged about a number of sightings of an eagle at Humboldt Park.
Stray solid
Having Greg Olsen within the sales space for the Cowboys-Eagles recreation Sunday felt as comfy and competent as tying on a Ned rig for smallmouth bass.
