Outdoor Column | Les Winkeler: Turning to the outdoors for entertainment - The Southern
One of the side effects of the pandemic is finding ways to entertain yourself.
My wife and I are avid movie-goers. Nope.
I love attending live sporting events. Nope.
Watching Cardinals baseball on television is a great way to spend a summer evening. Nope.
There’s nothing better than dining out with friends. OK, it’s currently legal, but I’m not comfortable being in large groups, particularly indoors.
That narrows the list, at least for me, considerably.
More and more I’m turning to the outdoors for entertainment. And, not in the traditional sense. I purchased my fishing license earlier this year, but I’ve only gone fishing once. (For the record, the crappie were delicious.)
Instead, I might spend a couple hours an afternoon keeping a close eye on my bird feeders – at least when it’s less than 90 degrees in the shade. Spending more time watching the feeders has paid dividends.
I spotted a white-winged dove at my back door earlier this year, a life bird for me. And, while walking out the front door to do a bit of yard work, I spotted an eastern screech owl in one of our oak trees. I’ve only spotted these secretive little birds in the wild a half dozen times or so.
Most of our limited forays outside the house usually include wildlife watching at some of our favorite places – Glen O. Jones Lake, Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge and Mermet Lake. This year we’ve expanded our horizons a bit, venturing more often into the wilds of Alexander and Union counties.
An interesting fact I’ve gleaned through all this – red-headed woodpeckers seemingly love city parks in Southern Illinois.
On a number of occasions we’ve gotten take out from restaurants and found a shady picnic table at the local city park to dine. About a dozen woodpeckers kept us company at Benton City Park. We saw about a half-dozen at Ray Fosse Park in Marion and a couple at Veteran’s Park in Marion.
Sure, you expect to see robins, sparrows and cardinals, but the red-headed woodpeckers were a real treat.
I’ve mentioned this in a previous column, but I’ve also adopted a new attitude towards yard work. I used to look forward to the steamy hot dog-days of July and August. The dirt-baking weather that would turn your grass into tinder.
It seems there were some summers where the lawn mower never got out of the garage from Fourth of July until Labor Day. And, that was fine with me – more time for golf and fishing.
Now, I’ve got the old man thing – I like the way my lawn looks.
My wife is an ex-florist, so we have flowers all over the yard. It’s her job to plant them, my job to keep them alive. I would have never believed this 30 years ago, but walking on the front lawn to pick up the paper in the morning is a lot more pleasant when the grass is lush and flowers are blooming.
Saturday, we got a pleasant surprise.
Over the years we’ve attempted to grow sunflowers. We’ve always failed, probably due to my neglect of the growing plants. However, the sunflower plants are gigantic this year – I was beginning to wonder if my wife got the seeds in exchange for a cow … but I digress.
As I walked into the backyard Saturday, I noticed a bloom. Yup, there is was, the size of a volleyball, a huge sunflower. In today’s world, that’s enough to make my day.
LES WINKELER is the outdoors writer for The Southern. Contact him at les@winkelerswingsandwildlife.com or on Twitter @LesWinkeler.
Get local news delivered to your inbox!
2020-07-18 23:08:00Z
https://thesouthern.com/outdoors/outdoor-column-les-winkeler-turning-to-the-outdoors-for-entertainment/article_383ac778-b8a8-5dd3-ba43-a0a0f33b5d9c.html
CBMimAFodHRwczovL3RoZXNvdXRoZXJuLmNvbS9vdXRkb29ycy9vdXRkb29yLWNvbHVtbi1sZXMtd2lua2VsZXItdHVybmluZy10by10aGUtb3V0ZG9vcnMtZm9yLWVudGVydGFpbm1lbnQvYXJ0aWNsZV8zODNhYzc3OC1iOGE4LTVkZDMtYmE0My1hMGEwZjMzYjVkOWMuaHRtbNIBAA
les
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Outdoor Column | Les Winkeler: Turning to the outdoors for entertainment - The Southern"
Post a Comment