I knew something was up when the big gander did not give way, until Lady and I were about 10 feet away. He held guard at the bridge over the neckdown between the two old clay pits with the certain steadfastness of a Royal Guard.

My guess on timing was right.

The first...

The red fox bolted across the street and past the decorative fruit trees in the yard a block from home so fast that ithe reality of a fox on the run did not sink in until it disappeared past a neighbor's porch.

The wonder of red foxes mean so much to me. They are my fa...

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources expected a drop in harvest by deer hunters in Indiana.

And there was a drop again, down to 120,073 deer

The photo is from the checkIN system.

Here is the word from the IDNR:

DNR releases ’14 deer harvest report – 120,073

...

The big surprise this morning was hearing, then finding a bittern, up in a tree of all places, near the south old old clay pit. It is hard to miss the rather distinctive call of a  bittern.

Click here to hear the call from allaboutbirds.org.

That was a nice surpri...

You know how robins can do a Battle Royale in the air, doing rolls and flips like fighter pilots in World War II.

Well, two did that this morning and were so oblivious and locked in their battle that they thunked the ground right next to Lady, our family's mutt, and me...

Diane Schneider sent a note late this morning that a few spots remain for the Lowrance University at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Cabela's in Hoffman Estates, Ill.

It is with Mark O'Neill, the guy who might be the best at teaching electronics. The photo above is from an outin...

Coming out of the wildness around the town pond and back to the edge of town, the lines of the grain elevators on the east side of the railroad tracks caught my eyes. They were sharply and darkly outlined with the backdrop of the rising sun.

(Hello, Charles Demuth. Lar...

STRAY CAST: Getting a noogie from Nolan Ryan is one thing, that s like a 30-pound muskie throwing a Pounder Bull Dawg at the boat; but blunders on bunting and challenge calls is like not being able to set the slip float for your kids fishing bluegill.  

(This...

Big muskie, big walleye and big hybrids, Heidecke Lake, the former cooling lake near Morris, Ill., is right on the cusp of taking off.

I would note that prime fishing time may be pushed back a week or so by the cold weather this week, but it is ready by the reports and...

A reminder came this morning that stream trout (harvest) season opens at 6 a.m. Saturday on select waters of Indiana, including several in northwest Indiana.

The reminder came for me with this announcement fron the Indiana DNR on the stocking in lakes of trout.

Annua...