Photography courtesy of Lowell Washburn, all rights reserved.October 2023 — Following a long and frantic search – a search in which everything I owned had been turned upside down — I had failed to find my missing decoy.  This was […]

Photography courtesy of Lowell Washburn, all rights reserved.November is a month of intense migration.  A time when high winds and, maybe even the season’s first snow squalls, send northern holdouts winging for the wintering grounds.  But not all autumn migrations

Photography courtesy of Lowell Washburn, all rights reserved.                                  Opening Day Meets Expectations Iowa’s much anticipated, centennial pheasant season got off to a roaring start as hunters from across the state – and in some cases, from across the nation –

Photography courtesy of Lowell Washburn, all rights reserved.One of the things I most love about hunting wood ducks is that quest often leads to some of the most unspoiled, picturesque, stunningly beautiful wetlands the landscape has to offer.  Shy and

Photography courtesy of Lowell Washburn, all rights reserved.If there was a single month of the year that I could grab, put in a bottle, and keep forever – that month would be October.  For those who love the out-of-doors, the

Photography courtesy of Lowell Washburn, all rights reserved.If you’ve not yet seen or heard a big old bullfrog booming from the edge of your favorite fishing hole or duck pond, hold on.  The time is coming when you will.  Whether

Photography courtesy of Lowell Washburn, all rights reserved.Spring Surveys Remained Largely Unchanged             When the days grow cooler and autumn winds shift to the north, Iowa duck hunters can expect to encounter good numbers of waterfowl during the 2025 hunting seasons. 

Photography courtesy of Lowell Washburn, all rights reserved.This year’s multi-segmented, multi-zoned Iowa duck season kicks off with a statewide teal-only hunt beginning September 6.  Although Iowa teal seasons have traditionally allowed for 16 consecutive days of teal hunting, the season

Photography courtesy of Lowell Washburn, all rights reserved.After a year of enduring things like weather, migration, and the rearing of youngsters, a bird’s feathers began to show their age.  The annual replacement of those worn feathers is called the molt. 

Photography courtesy of Lowell Washburn, all rights reserved.With its four-foot height, ear-piercing call, and six-foot wingspan; I think you’d be hard pressed to find a bird with more charisma than the crimson-capped sandhill crane.  After a century of absence, sandhill