Outdoors Column | Les Winkeler: Taking advantage of winter's best days - The Southern
When my wife bought a couple of kayaks on clearance last winter, I envisioned a couple of spring and early summer trips on local lakes.
The idea of floating around Glen O. Jones Lake at sundown on a warm spring night or taking advantage of a few cool minutes shortly after sunrise at Sahara Woods seemed appealing. As it turns out, the kayaks became a focus of our life this spring, summer and winter.
With COVID-19 limiting our interaction with friends, the kayaks became a godsend. Several times during the summer, four to five couples would meet at a boat ramp and spend the next several hours enjoying nature while safely social distancing.
We kayaked Harrisburg Lake at sunset, watching and listening to osprey as they soared above the lake. And, just before we headed back to the boat ramp we came upon a pair of black-crowned night herons, always a welcome surprise in Southern Illinois.
During the past year, we’ve launched the kayaks at Pounds Hollow, Glen O. Jones, Sahara Woods, the Cache River, Mermet and Crab Orchard.
We’ve witnessed belted kingfishers diving face first into the water in search of a snack. We’ve stared down great blue herons who were obviously angry at us for intruding upon their fishing water. And, one memorable evening at Sahara Woods, we cavorted with a beaver.
However, one of our most amazing encounters came two weeks ago.
Dec. 10 was an unseasonably warm day … if you had told me I’d be kayaking in Southern Illinois in mid-December I would have told you it was crazy. But, with sunny skies, light winds and the temperature close to 70 degrees, it seemed a rational thing to do.
We had been on the water just a few minutes when we saw a large bird soaring well overhead. From a distance, it was initially unclear whether the bird was a turkey vulture or a bald eagle. As the bird got closer it became clear we were being visited by an eagle, a bird making the transition from juvenile to adult plumage … always a red-letter day.
Amazingly, that was just the beginning.
Within minutes, the eagle was joined by a mature bird. They got closer and closer to us as they circled and were soon joined by another eagle. We had barely expressed our good fortune when a fourth eagle joined the mix.
By the time the fourth eagle arrived, they were directly overhead, circling at slightly above treetop level. Two of the birds circled in tight formation, tailgating each other in intricate aerial patterns. We watched for at least five minutes before they eventually disappeared over the trees.
That was certainly the wildlife highlight of the day, but far from the only encounters we had.
Before we headed back to the boat ramp, we had close encounters with golden-crowned kinglets, Carolina wrens, pied-billed grebes and endured the chattering curses of a belted kingfisher … all on a December day.
The kayaks are again stored in the garage, ostensibly for the rest of the winter. However, at this point, that certainly isn’t a guarantee.
LES WINKELER is the outdoors writer for The Southern Illinoisan. Contact him at les@winkelerswingsandwildlife.com, on Twitter @LesWinkeler.
2020-12-25 19:00:00Z
https://thesouthern.com/opinion/outdoors-column-les-winkeler-taking-advantage-of-winters-best-days/article_bfa9adf9-a404-5cc4-a183-c2ce6cb2f944.html
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