Overcast skies, chill winter wind, rural landscapes cloaked in nine inches of new snow. Absolute perfect conditions for an end of December goose hunt.  But for hunting companion Curt Stille and I, the anticipated slam dunk outing was rapidly turning into the proverbial wild goose chase. The dilemma wasn’t for a lack of birds. There were
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Today's magnificent snowstorm delivered the kind of weather I wait all year for.  The noisy crusted over snow was quickly buried, the woods became completely silent again, and the landscape soon resembled an upside down Christmas globe on steroids.  Best of all, resident white-tails were on the move.  With three unused deer tags still in
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  It’s rumored that when throwing important dinner parties, some of our local high rollers like to impress their guests by having live lobsters flown in from Maine or gallons of jumbo shrimp delivered fresh from the Gulf.  And although I’m not likely to receive an engraved invitation to any of those social events any time
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  Across Iowa’s northern tier, the signals are clear.  This year’s duck season is rapidly winding down.  Smaller ponds and sloughs – even the larger marshes -- are completely iced over – have been that way for more than a week now.  Winter is at hand and even the largest lakes are on borrowed time. But for
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  Monday morning, the final day of November.  A significant winter storm was brewing and you could feel it in the air.  A light skiff of snow had already fallen during the night and area weather forecasters were all but guaranteeing that more snow and maybe even some ice was headed our way.  With more than
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  Migrators:  Boring into the teeth of a 30 knot NW wind at sunrise; arriving flaps down over the decoys at seven; into the apple wood stoked Weber by 5:30 and onto the table [medium rare] promptly at six.  Long grained rice, mushroom & orange segments, and baked cabbage on the side.  No frills; no fuss
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    Home Wrecker. That’s how my friend Brandon Stark has labeled the monstrous white-tailed buck currently haunting our local woodlands.  The handle stuck, and now it’s the name everyone is using when referring to this nerve shattering, four legged antlered giant. High, wide, and handsome; Home Wrecker is the kind of buck that deer hunters dream of.
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  Migrating Blackbirds Provide Choreographed Air Show   For those who relish the outdoors, the month of November is one of the busiest and most exciting times of the year – so busy and so exciting, in fact, that making a list of all the things to do would fill pages. One of the things I eagerly look
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North Woods Hawk Trapping    Falconer’s Phone Call Launches Superior Adventure   The big female goshawk was growing weary. Drifting southward above the Ontario wilderness, the hawk had been on the wing for a long while. Although she had killed and eaten the better part of a snowshoe hare the day before, the energy gained from that
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  The annual fall migration of raptors -- eagles, hawks, falcons, and ospreys -- is one of Iowa’s most popular wildlife shows. Regardless of whether the habitats are grassland, forest, marsh, or open lake; there is no natural ecosystem that will not be visited by traveling birds of prey during the next several days. Humans have long
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  It Should Have Been A Slam Dunk But Hunting the Wild Goose Does not Always Go as Planned   Three o’clock in the morning and the anticipation was building. I was so wound up, in fact, that I literally couldn’t sleep; which is how I happened to know it was three a.m. The excitement had begun the day
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                        Iowa waterfowl hunters enjoyed overall good success during the the October 3rd kickoff to this year's regular duck season.  According to DNR Conservation Officers, hunters encountered good to excellent numbers of ducks statewide during Saturday's opener.  Although a scattering of other species were reported, the flight was clearly dominated by mallards, teal and wood ducks. 
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