Cougar weather

First, the Tribune is reporting that the North Side cougar traces its ancestry to the Black Hills of South Dakota. This was the same cat that was in southern Wisconsin a few months back.

Second, I couldn't let April end without one last post about the weather. The low of 31 yesterday at O'Hare tied a record, and the high of 44 was extremely rare. On Monday, snow fell in much of the area. We may have seen the last freeze of the season. According to meteorologist Tom Skilling, a "heavy frost" has never struck the lakefront beyond May 14. Seven to 15 miles inland, the corresponding date is May 29.

Dunes drinking

I have to preface this post by saying I'm not an alcoholic and I (mostly) don't need alcohol to have fun.

Our visit to Indiana Dunes was tainted by a new ban on alcohol in Dunewood Campground. Not just consumption of alcohol or possession of alcohol, but all alcohol. Like $5,000-fine-and-possible-imprisonment alcohol. (The rule was enacted in February 2006.)

I love Indiana Dunes. Our camping trip there was very nice--few people, secluded site, crisp air, good scenery. But it was hard to relax knowing the bottle of wine and 22 ouncer of beer we had could send us to jail. Now, I've camped and drank in many places where there was an alcohol ban. Typically, I shrug this off as a nuisance and then quietly will have a few. Not here. Besides dozens of scary signs, a fellow camper told us that he and his party were thoroughly searched the last time he was there. This isn't relaxation in the woods. This is like entering the Green Zone.

I would argue it's un-American to outlaw drinking in a campground. Nipping from a flask on a brisk night by a campfire is everyone's right. Clearly there is no harm in this.

Indiana Dunes should focus on important rules regarding quiet hours and take the lead from progressive camping locales like Wisconsin and Quebec. Twenty-four hour quiet hours should be established, and you should not be able to hear other campers from your site at any time. All music should only be played through headsets.

We didn't get "caught" drinking, but the spectre of the possibility made it hard to relax. We should have probably left when we saw the first sign. Now we know not to come back. Campchicago.net ratings will be adjusted accordingly.

Dune ramble

A weekend trip to Indiana Dunes yielded 62 bird species. Highlights included sora (seen at Cowles Bog and heard at Miller Woods), northern waterthrush and orange-crowned warbler. We also heard a blue jay imitate a red-tailed hawk, and we may have heard an elusive sedge wren calling in the bog. Woodpeckers were everywhere -- we identified all six that occur locally (pileateds unfortunately do not occur locally). In addition, at our campground, a barred owl began calling around 6:30 p.m. yesterday and continued flying around and calling all night and into the morning. The weather was brisk, in the upper 40s, but comfortable.

Carmi mercury

The latest cougar sighting comes from Stickney, an inner ring suburb mostly known for its massive wastewater treatment plant. I'm guessing it was actually a stray house cat looking for some radioactive fish bones.

Elsewhere, loons and ticks are returning to Minnesota. The loons haven't been able to leave southern Minnesota because the lakes to the north still are icebound at this late date.

Our weather has had its share of oddities along with the typical 20-degree north-south temperature gradients across the area. Yesterday's statewide low of 51 was in Carmi, 341 miles due south of here. Today's statewide high of 86 degrees was then 82 miles north of Carmi in Robinson. Ah, southeastern Illinois.

Spring morning

Today brought mild springlike weather and stops at Gompers Park and LaBagh Woods on Chicago's Northwest Side. Perhaps the highlight was the first blue-gray gnatcatcher of the season. Either that or the people who fooled me into thinking a prothonotary warbler was present by playing a tape of a prothonotary warbler.

Geological madness

Early this morning, an earthquake registering 5.2 on the Richter scale struck the Midwest. The quake was centered in West Salem, Ill., 200 miles south of Chicago. There was a little bit of damage from the temblor in southern Illinois. In Chicago, buildings swayed and people woke to the rumbling of the earth. The New Madrid Fault, named after a town in southeastern Missouri, is a seismic zone that extends into the Wabash River valley.

Elsewhere in this increasingly wild metropolis, reports surfaced of another cougar. Naturally, there were going to be copycat sightings, pun not intended, of a million cougars after the one found on the North Side. Every tomcat in Alsip is going to be identified as a puma. I stand by my theory that this was the same cougar that was seen on the North Shore a few days ago.

Also, tonight, there are two crows roosting in the maples in front of our building.

Spring fever

Today, after a long, dreary winter and spring, the temperature touched 70 at O'Hare and Midway. It was the first 70 in six months. With strong southerly winds at their backs, spring-fever hordes flocked to the lakefront path.