It's an oddly warm stretch going into the new year, but that will change after this Wild Weekend Wandering around Chicago outdoors.

Safe ice slowly pushes south, a month behind last year; that and lakefront perch lead this MFR.

Click here for the two runner-ups for the 2011 FOTY, both symbolic of important threads in fishing around Chicago this year.

Click here for the 2011 FOTY.

Mulling things on my morning ramble with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

After much debate with myself and discussion with some others, I am restarting a Twitter account.

Over the years, readers have sent some wonderful questions for the Mailbag in the Sunday outdoors page in the Sun-Times, but Dave McDonald sent a first of its kind whaisit.

For the remaining "Outside" radio shows of the year, we are rerunning some of the most popular or commented on shows.

Kenneth Doroba sent a wonderful trail cam shot of an apparent wolf in November.

Debated not posting this Wild Weekend Wandering around Chicago outdoors, but then figured enough of us are looking for an excuse to escape the extended family that I put it up; and there's stuff going on outside.

Joe Kath, endangered species manager for Illinois, put the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announcment on Wednesday about wolves in the western Great Lakes within the Illinois perspective.

Big announcement on the wolves in the western Great Lakes from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; I am not sure yet what it might mean for Illinois.

Some Christmas traditions for Chicago fishing--lakefront perching--look good, while others--ice fishing--don't; even so, I go with the usual extended Midwest Fishing Report heading into the Christmas-New Year week.

I was digging through FOTW entries to think about Fish of the Year when I found one I had forgotten about--click here for this week's memory of Brandon Infelise's catch at DuSable Harbor--during the big fall run of salmon on the Chicago lakefront.

It only seems apt to run the Stray Cast here.

I read this rescue story from the Illinois Conservation Police and thought, ``Hey, that's where I duck hunted.''

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

Sorry I am behind on getting this up, I will catch up; but deer harvest continues to lag both by bowhunters and overall.

Bill Peak, one of my favorite chroniclers of wildlife and nature on the Southeast Side, sent this buck of BOTW: Unplugged.

For the remaining "Outside" radio shows of the year, we are rerunning some of the most popular or commented on shows.

Despite two inches of rain that socked the the Kankakee River basin

yesterday, Norm Minas ventured out and survived to write about it.

What looked like the start of ice fishing around Chicago was washed out, but there's ice farther north and some perch fishing nearby to lead the Midwest Fishing Report.

Below is the story of Steve Siemek's big buck from Kankakee County, as told by his brother Bill.

It only seems apt to run the Stray Cast here.

Joe Panatera caught another one of the good northern pike in a memorable fall on the lower Des Plaines River.

Depending on how things look, this might be the last Illinois Hunting Report other than sporadic ones around the late deer seasons and turkey hunting in the spring.

Muzzleloader totals for deer were up, while the harvest by bowhunters is lagging behind 2010.

Click here for David Lehman's BOTW: Unplugged, one of several big bucks along the Chicago River in the north suburbs, leading him to suggest that "they ought to open it up to bowhunters."

For the three remaining "Outside" radio shows of the year, we will do reruns of the most popular or commented on shows.

Busting decoys out of ice will do it.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

Thursday morning, there was ice just starting to form across the area, and that leads this Wild Weekend Wandering around Chicago outdoors; I should add against the first white background of the fall that settled in overnight.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

Total deer harvest, from both firearms seasons in Illinois, dropped.

Ice fishing creeps south from northern Wisconsin and leads this Midwest Fishing Report.

Click here for the BOTW Dennis Goron arrowed in Will County in late October.

Click here for FOTW, a big pike caught by Larry Narro from the Des Plaines River.

It only seems apt to run the Stray Cast here.

Another sturgeon was found on our end of Lake Michigan.

I am very curious to see what the numbers for both firearm seasons will be; and those thoughts lead this Illinois Hunting Report.

Roger Morales' photo of the mudpuppy he caught Thanksgiving morning at Montrose Harbor finally clicked in my mind what mudpuppies look like.

It's public radio and fundraising time, please pitch in and back "Outside."

There's a mix of frozen surf, turf and air for this Wild Weekend Wandering around Chicago outdoors.