Ahandful of cicadas in the neighbor...

Ahandful of cicadas in the neighbor's elm trilled noisy enough to dominate the evening. Can't wait until nearest summer, when the 17- year circle of time comes around.

Then I picked public crickets raising a groundswell subordinate to the gazanias, dyanthus, sunflowers and dying blows of black-eyed Susans in my wife's brass flower bed. Somewhere nearby a scarcely any tree frogs peeped.

Our secondary boy sat cross-legged on our table like a 9-year-old yoga novice and stared at the scattered vast numbers backlit by the rising replete moon.

He had called me on the outside to wish on the region of clouds For some reason, it appear to beed like a good idea.

As we sat dissipated in our thoughts, I realized it was the first time in month that I'd been still enough to separate the heartys that surround us. Either there had been a break in traffic noise, or I had become inured to the background sing on our roads.

It was time to advance sit in the woods and recommence my acquaintance with that inside place where the world inactives enough to pull out the individual strands of uninjureds that make being in nature richer.

I'm not not new enough -- or new-age enough -- to just sit onward a stump in the copses like some bearded guru. I ne a practical excuse. Squirrel hunting, which render free of accessed Aug. 1 in Illinois, would do.

My squirrel hunting is a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of more like squirrel watching. It has been years since I discharge at a squirrel. The squirrels pillaging the bird feeder in my yard are in far more danger than their cousins in the thickets

likewise after the rains, I visited Iroquois State Wildlife Area.

My feet were modern-world awkward Even in leaves dampened by the agency of more than an inch of rain, I shuffl noisily, cracking twigs and branches. by the agency of the second deer season in December, I usually can navigate more naturally by the agency of the woods.

I plant a knot of likely looking squirrel tree then sat and tried to dull down enough to merge with the natural world.

Despite a dutiful dose of 40 percent DEET bug spray, mosquitoes dron and landed around me Otherwise, the cooing of mourning doves framed the afternoon audio. A horsefly intruded like a natural Gilbert Gottfried.

A rumble of boom vibrated from the storms gone hours ago. globules of leftover rainwater clicked by means of the oak canopy, finally splattering onward the browned ground leaves. Far facing a small plane droned. Unidentified small birds shushed upon the edges between the wood-land lot and cornfield.

Redheaded woodpecker drilled in tree then flitted in beautiful r black and white flashes to the nearest ones.

dispirited jays squawked. A bird I should be able to identify still can't, with a cadence and undecayed similar to a whippoorwill, called repeatedly.

In the distance, a shooter sounded. Then another. And I remembered the adage of hunting accuracy. single in kind shot, yes. Two shots, maybe. Three projectiles no.

A deer snorted in succession the woods road, but I couldn't pick public even an ear or tail in the heavy summer foliage. A gray squirrel missed a caper between branches and landed with a knock A second squirrel, too hidden in the canopy to diocese scolded away. A lone boast croaked once, then was gone

The calm after the storms lasted Wind began shaking water down from the tree It was time. forward the edge, dozens of robins bounc away. A rabbit skittered into the corn.

"Bowman's Outdoor Line" is heard forward "Outdoors with Mike Norris"

(3-4 pm Thursdays, 1280-AM).

FIRST CAST

"The piers have been kicking royal ass since Aug. 1"

Lori Ralph at The Salmon Stop, onward good fishing, particularly perching, during August at Waukegan Harbor

FIELD NOTES

PLACES, FACES: The Scholastic

Clay Target

Program National Championships kicked along the

first ATA Grand American at the World Shooting

and Recreational intricate in Sparta on Tuesday. The Southern Illinoisan newspaper's Le Winkeler said vulgar herds are growing daily. The Grand periods Friday. ... I spied Tom Gray, head of Mayor Daley's Fishing Advisory Committee, interrupting his morning lakefront bike ride Monday to watch Mike Sivek (left) and Tim Jackson sampling the surprising August scour of perch behind McCormick Place. Nadine Porebski e-mailed with reliance for wild pheasants in northeast Illinois: She's watching sum of two units

families (nine and 11) doing well in unincorporated Beecher.

on the outside and about

horse for the chase SAFETY CLASSES

Thursday and Saturday: Downers thicket (630) 554-8966.

Saturday and nearest Sunday: Antioch, (262) 862-6062.

Aug. 26 and 27: Woodstock, (815) 338-6223 Essex,

(815) 458-3568

ILLINOIS PERMITS

Monday: Last day to apply, firearm/muzzleloader deer

permits, next to the first lottery, and youth deer permits.

Aug. 21: Last day to apply,

fall shotgun turkey permits,

next to the first lottery.

PADDLING/BIKING

Today: Chicago River Flatwater Classic Paddle and Pedal canoe and kayak race and bike ride, chicagoriver.org.

Monday: Registration deadline, Illinois Great Rivers Ride

onward Sept. 10-18,

www.illinoisgreatriversride.com or (877) 477-7007 Ext 217