The season is changing and white-tail bucks are beginning to shift gears.  Along the edge of Iowa’s woodlands, fresh scrapes are beginning to appear as bucks mark territories  and announce their presence.  I normally don’t start bow hunting for deer until the first week of November.  This year, however, I decided to do my own
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A Year Like No Other – an early season duck hunt in Cerro Gordo County, 1979. Back row [left to right] Lowell Washburn, Earl Leaman, Sterling Washburn, Leonard Washburn, Ed Kotz, Jr. / Front row – Sandy the Chesapeake & Shad the Lab Photo By: Ed Kotz, Sr.   Duck hunters love to reminisce. Recounting the great
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  DULUTH, MN. --- According to our calendars, autumn has officially begun. If you look to the skies, there are some undeniable signs that the season is changing. In America’s North Country, the annual raptor migration is in full swing. Although the grand passage can be viewed from a variety of locations, there is no better
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We’ve all heard that “Variety is the Spice of Life”.  Although generally applied to other topics, the familiar saying can certainly hold true for the outdoors as well.  One of the things I like most about duck hunting, for example, is that you just never know what’s going to drop into the decoys.  Some visitors
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Black Hills Bighorn Recovery Inches Forward National Wildlife Federation Aids in Securing Safe Habitat CUSTER, SD ---- I saw my first wild bighorn in the summer of 1959. Feeding near a roadway in the Black Hills of western South Dakota, the animal was a spectacular full curl ram. Perfect in every detail, the ram was far more
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  Iowa’s prairie wetlands are one of our richest natural treasures. Wetlands benefit everyone. They store runoff and reduce downstream flooding. Wetlands help stabilize water tables and recharge underground aquifers. Serving as efficient natural filters, aquatic plant life consumes excess nutrients and purifies water by absorbing harmful chemical pollutants. Those are the practical benefits of Iowa marshlands.
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  Blue-winged teal are as fun to eat as they are to hunt. Likewise, for fall mushrooms. Fortunately for us, both Iowa delicacies are currently in season. Iowa’s teal season runs until September 16th. Migrating teal have been plentiful and hunters are bringing home plenty of birds. Fall mushrooms love wet weather, and local woodlands are harboring
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The 2014 reinstatement of the Iowa teal season is the best single change of waterfowl regulations in the past half century. For thousands of Iowans who participated in the September 1st teal season opener, the credibility of that statement was more than obvious. Although much of the state was blanketed by heavily overcast skies, fog,
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Iowa’s fifth annual, Teal-Only Duck Hunting Season is underway. The early hunt began September 1 and runs through September 16. Shooting hours are from sunrise to sunset each day. Only teal are legal game during the special season; the daily bag limit is six blue-winged or green-winged teal. The 16-day hunt is timed to coincide
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Duck hunters can expect to see good numbers of waterfowl during the 2018 hunting seasons. And although total duck numbers have decreased by 13 percent from 2017; populations remain strong and are17 percent above the long term – 1955 to 2017 -- average [LTA]. That’s the official assessment from this year’s North American Breeding Duck
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  Dueling Bison Provide Late Summer Drama Late summer is one of my favorite times for visiting the Black Hills of western South Dakota. For the American bison, it’s the peak of the annual breeding season and mature bulls are on the scrap. With blood running hotter than the prairie sun, love struck prime-of-life-bulls are currently regarding
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  It’s late July; summer is beginning to wane. Right on schedule, this year’s crop of annual cicadas has made their above ground appearance. Often referred to as “locusts”, the distinctive chorus of hopeful males is currently filling the sultry summer atmosphere. With volumes exceeding 100 decibels, the ear-piercing trill is impossible to miss. Louder than
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