The Amazing Wood Duck
The wood duck is one of the Mississippi Flyway’s – and Iowa’s — most recreationally important waterfowl. This fact is especially true for me. During the course of a year, I spend more time hunting, observing, photographing and working with wood ducks than any other single species. Drake wood duck In addition to its elegantly crested head and kaleidoscope plumage, the colorful wood duck is unique from other waterfowl in many ways. Instead of communicating in familiar duck-like quacks, woodies converse...
read moreLetting Go
Letting go can be hard to do – especially when it’s something you love. McGregor,IA — It was a brilliant spring day, and my wife Carol and I were admiring the view from atop the highest bluff at Clayton County’s Pike’s Peak State Park. Five hundred feet below, the sprawling island studded expanse of the Upper Mississippi River provided one of Iowa’s most scenic backdrops. In addition to being America’s continental drainpipe, the Mighty Mississip’ is also a vital corridor for millions of...
read moreBobtail
I’m not one of those people who is big on naming wildlife. But in the case of Bobtail, it was hard to resist. Bobtail is a white-tailed doe that, at some point in her life, has literally had her tail chopped in half. The squared off portion that remains makes her easy to identify. Bobtail [bringing up the rear] crosses the road in December of 2017 at the Dave Rosendahl farm south of Clear Lake My first encounter with Bobtail came during the winter of 2017 when she, along with several other white-tails, ran across the...
read moreTime to Head for the Woodlands
For Iowa birding enthusiasts, the month of May is a time like no other — the absolute high-water mark of the annual outdoor calendar. The reason is simple. After spending the winter months in food rich habitats in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America, millions of neotropical songbirds are making their way to northern nesting grounds. Indigo bunting – Although some spring migrants may be a challenge to identify, the strikingly iridescent blue plumage and melodious repertoire of the male Indigo...
read moreSpring Turkeys
The final segment of Iowa’s four-part spring turkey season is currently underway. The season ends May 15. As is the case with most outdoor activities, turkey hunting success depends largely on local weather conditions. Like most of us, spring gobblers prefer clear skies, warm sunrises and light or no wind. Generally speaking, toms spend more time gobbling on nice days which results in more hunters putting more wild turkeys in the bag. Unfortunately, this year’s seasons have offered little in the way of ideal...
read moreSpring Mushrooms
For Iowa mushroom hunters, it’s been a cold, dark, and windy spring. At a time when succulent morels should begin emerging in numbers, nighttime temps hover near or below freezing on an all too frequent basis. As popular woodlands remain void of emerging foliage, some enthusiasts are giving up hope. If it gets much later, they say, there won’t be a mushroom crop at all. Not true. No matter how long it takes, sooner or later, the morels will start popping. The season may be brief, but rest assured that...
read moreSpring Migration
The white-hot stars of a spring night were rapidly fading into nothingness. Meanwhile, the eastern horizon was being set ablaze by strengthening hues of the impending sunrise. A new day was beginning at the Ventura Marsh. The transition was greeted by a symphony of familiar wetland sounds – the soft splashing of waves, the brittle rustle of winter dried cattails, the trill of red-wings, and the overlapping voices of a thousand meowing cats. That’s right, the sound of meowing cats; smack in the middle of a 200-acre...
read moreAvian Influenza Spreads Across Iowa
To paraphrase former U.S. President, Ronald Reagan, “Here we go again.” A new wave of highly pathogenic avian influenza [HPAI] is currently sweeping across North America. Similar to the outbreak which occurred during 2015, a Eurasian-origin strain of HPAI [commonly known as bird flu] was first detected in a captive, multi-species Canadian bird flock in December of 2021. In January 2022, a U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA] surveillance program discovered the pathogen in a hunter harvested American wigeon from South...
read moreMarch Smackdown
Although Iowa’s spring turkey seasons are still a few weeks away, local gobblers are already strutting their stuff. By the sounds of it, this morning would be no exception. In spite of chilly temperatures and a brisk northwest wind, turkeys had begun sounding off at the first hint of dawn. As daylight increased, the gobbling rapidly intensified. Gliding off the roost, a trio of mature toms touched down near the edge of frost covered bean field. Quickly merging into a tight group, the birds lost no time in...
read moreSearching for the Bird of the Midnight Sun
For Iowa outdoor enthusiasts, the sighting of a seldom seen bird is a rare treat. And when it comes to birding in the Tall Corn State, the sightings don’t get much rarer than when focusing your binoculars on a wild gyrfalcon. The species is such an infrequent visitor, in fact, that most birders – even the hardcores — will never receive an opportunity see a wild ‘gyr in Iowa. I’ve had the priviledge of seeing two. The first was at a distance; the second was much closer. Lance Christensen, Rob...
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