Sep 22, 2013
Perfect weather. Lots of ducks. Happy hunters. That’s the general assessment for this year’s Opening Day of the early segment of the 2013 Iowa Duck Season — or at least that’s how it shaped up in the North Central region of the state. As always, our party began the opening weekend with a family campout; staged this...
Sep 20, 2013
My friend Joe Wilkinson and I spent a good part of our morning shooting waterfowl and wetland video in North Central Iowa. Overall habitat conditions are excellent and every area we visited held ducks –mallards, wood ducks, even a few newly arrived pintails. But the highlight of the morning came in the form of buzzing, low level flocks...
Sep 19, 2013
Showy and colorful, the goldenrod is one of my favorite fall flowers. The annual appearance of the goldenrod’s bright yellow flowers offer proof positive that summer heat and humidity are on borrowed time and that fall will soon arrive. The yellow flowers also mean that blue-winged teal are already on the move and that we’ll soon be...
Sep 17, 2013
It didn’t take a trained meteorologist or PhD level ornithologist to read the signs. With starry nighttime skies, daily high temperatures dropping off dramatically, and steadily freshening breezes, the message was clear. Migratory birds would be on the move. And for anyone who spent time poking around North Iowa wetlands on Friday and...
Sep 16, 2013
Saturday morning and a large scale bird migration was in full swing. I had hunkered into the soggy edge of North Iowa mudflat to enjoy the show as flocks of blue-winged teal, mallards, green-wings, pintails, shovelers, yellowlegs, and killdeer moved above the wetlands. A good number of teal, killdeer and yellowlegs had stopped to explore and probe...
Born in North Central Iowa, Lowell Washburn has enjoyed a lifelong interest in the out of doors. He began photographing wild birds at age 10, and outdoor photography soon became his passion and eventually a career. Washburn is best known for images that portray migratory waterfowl and other wetland wildlife in their natural habitats. His best photographs are often obtained after spending hours floating amid natural marshlands, half submerged within the dark confines of a floating muskrat house blind.
Upon completing military service as a sergeant with the Fourth Infantry Division in the central highlands of South Vietnam, Washburn returned to Iowa in 1970. His wildlife photos began appearing in Iowa newspapers in 1971 and he began authoring outdoor news columns in 1978. Today, his photos and writing have appeared in over 50 national and international magazines including Outdoor Life, International Wildlife, Field&Stream, Ducks Unlimited, Pointing Dog Journal, the NAFA Journal, and others.
After working as a naturalist for Iowa’s county conservation board system, Washburn was recruited by the Department of Natural Resources in 1984. His primary duties included statewide communication with Iowa newspaper, television, and radio news agencies with a primary goal of increasing the level of public awareness and appreciation for Iowa's natural resources. During his tenure he also served as staff member for the Iowa Conservationist Magazine and for the DNR’s Iowa Outdoors Magazine. Washburn retired from the DNR in 2010.
In addition to wildlife photography, his ongoing outdoor passions include falconry, traditional bow hunting, waterfowling, spending time with hunting dogs of all types, and herpetology.