MORRIS, Ill. – You need glasses to walk on a prairie in winter. Anything – goggles, sunglasses, goggles – will do. They are not intended to protect your eyes from the endless dullness of the prairies in winter, but to keep dried stalks of bluestem and Indian grass from poking your eyes. Better to be hit in the cheek by a dried rattlesnake master ball than to be poked in the eye by a stalk.
You really have to wade into a prairie to fully understand its magnitude. You feel like an insignificant speck in the landscape, a character wandering around in a Laura Ingalls Wilder novel.
This is even more true in winter, with the tans, tans and dirty whites. Most of the color on Goose Lake Prairie came from the fluorescent orange flags that deer hunters are required to carry.
I signed a deer hunting permit for the CWD antlerless hunt at Goose Lake Prairie/Heidecke Lake. The first part was from Thursday to Sunday; the second part is January 17-19.
Saturday, when I was able to go, another hunter and I shared one field. He planned to hunt north, so I headed south.
With open water on Heidecke, Canada geese, white-fronted geese, snow geese, mallards and many ducks I couldn’t identify flew heavily for the first three hours after what turned into a gray pre-dawn day. The only notable wildlife I encountered was a swamp hawk (northern harrier).
As I walked a few miles to familiarize myself with a section I had not hunted, I saw only one pile of deer droppings and a few tracks.
Since there were two of us in this expanse, I thought it still best to hunt on the prairie, hoping to jump on a deer.
About 100 yards further, the endless prairie overwhelmed me.
I could never just sit outside and enjoy. I needed to do something – hunting, hiking, bird watching, foraging – but on Saturday I had a breakthrough. As a former English major, I call it a revelation; psychologists might call it a breakthrough.
Deep in the prairie, near a dry hole, I sat in my camouflage chair and was swallowed up. For the first time, I appreciated just sitting there and enjoying the silence and vastness.
Perhaps I have finally grown old enough to achieve unity with the wild world. For me it was time.
Walks of the first day
To go on a first day hike, you don’t need to do anything organized. Some ideas about the New Year’s tradition are in a blog by ilstateparks.orgincluding organized events at William Powers State Recreation Area and Illinois Beach State Park.
Wild things
John Henegan reported 18 dead geese below the Yorkville Dam on the Fox River and a dozen deaths around Aurora to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. If you find dead birds in this bird flu outbreak, you can consult the details at dnr.illinois.gov/press-release.30768.html about what to do. . . . Andy Hansen reports of multiple eagle sightings in Humboldt Park.
Lost cast
To have Greg Olsen in the booth for the Cowboys-Eagles game Sunday felt as comfortable and skilled as tying on a Ned rig for smallmouth bass.
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