Washburn’s Outdoor Journal

Photography courtesy of Lowell Washburn, all rights reserved.  It was a cold, late spring.  But the summer weather is heating up and at long last, this year’s crop of wild raspberries is coming on strong.  For my money, few treats […]

Photography courtesy of Lowell Washburn, all rights reserved.  Comedian Rodney Dangerfield was best known for his trademark phrase, “I don’t get no respect.” I suspect that, if the lowly mulberry bush had feelings, it could relate.  Although few fruit bearing

Photography courtesy of Lowell Washburn, all rights reserved.   Lots of rainfall.  Lots of spring and summer ponds.  Lots of nesting ducks during 2014.  That’s the official summary for this year’s North American Breeding Duck and Habitat Survey released this week

Photography courtesy of Lowell Washburn, all rights reserved.  Torrential downpours and flash flooding seem to have dominated much of the June weatherscape.  And although it may not compare with the devastation seen during last year’s never ending rainfall, area fields

Photography courtesy of Lowell Washburn, all rights reserved.  The guy standing ahead of me at the grocery checkout had just placed four jars of grape jelly on the counter.  Grape jelly.  That was it; nothing else. “Orioles,” he said with

Photography courtesy of Lowell Washburn, all rights reserved.  With its distinctive zebra-striped head, crow sized body, and maniacal call, the pileated woodpecker is in a league of its own.  It is one of my favorite woodland birds. Finding an active

Photography courtesy of Lowell Washburn, all rights reserved.  Once they’ve been at it for a few seasons, most mushroom hunters will have amassed a collection of stories recounting their grandest moments in the spring woodlands.  Most tales are accounts of

Photography courtesy of Lowell Washburn, all rights reserved.    Only got close to one turkey today [a hen], but there were plenty of other interesting things to observe in Iowa’s spring woodlands.  Plum, and other, blossoms are really beginning to

Photography courtesy of Lowell Washburn, all rights reserved.  Of all the wild game the outdoors has to offer, no species is more predictably unpredictable than the elusive wild turkey.  To pursue the bird is to engage in a never ending

Photography courtesy of Lowell Washburn, all rights reserved.  Spring has finally arrived; dandelions are beginning to bloom.  For ultra-urbanized lawn care fanatics, the annual appearance of the dandelion’s familiar yellow flower is most unwelcome.  But for those of us who