Burn on

Summer is finally here and temps are in the 80s, though our astronomical spring will go down as the wettest in history.

Thanks to the correspondents for keeping me up on the latest nature news. The New York Times printed a story about the rebirth of the Cuyahoga River, which flows from the uplands east of Cleveland and makes a large arc before emptying into Lake Erie downtown. To quote a favorite sportscaster of mine, how do you put out a fire on a river? With wood?

The Detroit Free Press posted an article more than a week ago about the return of Kirtland's warblers to the northern part of Lower Michigan. The rare birds have jumped in numbers tenfold in about 20 years.

Last, some Chicagoans are pushing for the conversion of an old railroad right-of-way into a park that would stretch westward from about 1800 North near the North Branch of the river. New York did something similar just recently in the Meatpacking District.

Urban wildlife

We've reported on Chicago's coyotes and even mountain lions in the past, but NPR broadcast a story that provides more detail on coyotes in particular. I've seen a couple coyotes in Chicago and in recent years the "prairie wolves" have made waves when one walked into a sandwich shop in the Loop. An Ohio State professor reports that a whopping 2,000 coyotes live in Chicago. They help control the canada goose population and can cover a range of 50 square miles in just one evening.

Hello larid

A flock of ring-billed gulls has become a regular presence in the outfield at Cleveland Indians' games at Progressive Field. It's been a little strange, but it wasn't a big deal until a gull factored into the Tribe's win on Thursday. A base hit to center deflected off a gull and past the Royals' center fielder. The hit came with a runner on second in a tie game and scored the winning run in the ninth. The Indians are now looking at ways to chase off the larids. Here in Chicago, we used border collies for a while at some of the beaches. It didn't last. Maybe the Indians call in the mysterious Starling Whisperer of Decatur.

Squirrel return

A fox squirrel terrorized the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox tonight in Comerica Park, stopping action a few times. The brazen sciurid charged across the outfield and along the warning track at one point. It then eluded a group of hapless groundskeepers. For a time, it was resting on top of the outfield fence. It lounged like some do in our maples here with limbs splayed and body flush with branch. According to this account, the squirrel eventually was captured in Boston's dugout.

Vicious cycle

Thanks to one of the correspondents for this link to a blog post from a Giro d'Italia rider. Wow, 6,450 calories in one day. I felt really tired just reading this. The Giro went to Russian rider Denis Menchov.

Spring farewell

This is now the wettest spring at Midway Airport since 1928. It really has been damp and cool here for days on end. Admittedly, I prefer it cooler most any time of year, and this May has delivered. Especially here on the lakefront, where our microclimate has kept it far cooler than inland for days on end. Today I wore a fuzzy to work, for example, even though it was over 60 near the salt mines.
The down comforter is still on the bed, though the heat hasn't kicked on but once all month, I believe.

The beaches are now open in Chicago, and meteorological summer begins on June 1. Not really sure why the beaches are open as the water won't be swim-able for another few weeks. But each year they open up the beaches way early, and people flock there to revel in the 60-degree temperatures.

Camp Chicago

I've made some updates to campchicago.net, the Web site that started my foray into Web development and blogging back in 2005. There's no doubt I haven't been camping that much in the campchicago.net area (within four hours or so from Chicago by car) in recent years, and the ratings and discussion pages reflect that. Still, campchicago.net ranks high in search engines for "camping" and "Chicago" (imagine that). I've gotten a couple inquiries via e-mail from time to time, too.

The site now has updates from driftless area via FeedBurner. It also has a few more articles in the "Other Stuff" section.