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 – gathered to pursue Iowa’s number one gamebird.  Rooster Pheasant – The ring-necked pheasant is Iowa’s number one gamebird.  With statewide pheasant numbers currently at
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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 reclusive, wood ducks inhabit the most isolated habitats they can find.  Preferences include densely vegetated willow swamps, beaver ponds, and the long
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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 month of October offers an unparalleled array of sights and sounds.  Fall colors achieve their peak during October.  Our marshes and woodlands
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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 or not you view that statement as good news or bad is largely a matter of personal perspective. A native inhabitant of Mississippi
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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.  Although six of the ten key surveyed species showed a slight to moderate increase, a combined survey total of 34 million ducks
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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 will be trimmed to 9 days for 2025.  According to federal [U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service] guidelines, a 16-day teal season is only
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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.  For birds like male cardinals, the molt merely consists of trading an old red feather for a new red feather.  For others,
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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 cranes are becoming increasingly common across Iowa.  Nesting cranes are currently documented in more than 40 Iowa counties with the greatest densities
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Biologists with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources have completed statewide July goose banding operations.  This year, a total of nearly 4,000 Canada geese were successfully captured and banded, according to Orrin Jones, DNR State Waterfowl Biologist. DNR Waterfowl Biologist, Orrin Jones bands a young Canada goose.  Biologists use leg bands to track goose movements and
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According to Iowa’s state climatologist, last winter was the fourth least snowy in 138 years of record keeping – a real boon for winter pheasant survival.  The abnormally dry winter was followed by normal spring rainfall and favorably warm [average] spring temperatures.  “Given the statewide weather information, we are expecting a good nesting effort and pheasant
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            A Yellow-headed Blackbird, Of Course! With its bright golden mantle and jet-black body, it would be hard to mistake the yellow-headed blackbird for any other species.  An inhabitant of Iowa marshlands, the yellow-head has a unique and complex life history.  That, along with the male’s distinctive buzzing song, makes the yellow-headed blackbird one of my
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Spring is in the air -- literally.  Leaving their winter homes, millions of neotropical songbirds are now winging their way to northern nesting grounds.  For many species, the flight between South American wintering areas and Canadian nesting grounds is a rigorous journey that traverses thousands of miles.  Hidden from human eyes, the migration miracle occurs
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