Iowa Peregrines Soar to New Heights Following decades of absence, Iowa’s fastest bird species is staging a remarkable comeback.  Peregrine falcon numbers continue to soar.  During 2015, a total of 20 active falcon territories have been documented in the state so far – marking an unprecedented increase of five adult pairs over last year’s nesting season. 
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    Everyone loves an early morning encounter with a fired up spring gobbler.  But once the episode concludes, have you ever wondered how many times you actually heard the bird gobble?  Sure, all of us have asked that question at one time or another.  Did the bird gobble 50 times?  Or was it maybe 150?  Well,
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I’m sitting on an isolated prairie hilltop.  It’s still pitch dark; more than an hour to go until sunrise.  Inside my photo blind, I’m fighting the urge to doze off.  I’m located at the edge of an active prairie chicken booming ground [more properly called a lek] hoping to catch a literal glimpse of Iowa’s
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    Once in a Blue Moon there are times when wild turkeys follow the script and the hunt goes exactly as planned.  We’ve all heard and read about those mythical Text Book Turkey Hunts.  You know, the hunts where the weather is perfect, the calling is perfect, and the Old Swamp Gobbler you’ve been plotting against for
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With Less Than An Hour to Hunt, It Was Still Worth A Try   McGREGOR, IA. --- April 13, 2015; the long awaited Opening Day of the Iowa spring turkey season.  Turkey openers are always a big day on the outdoor calendar, and the 2015 kickoff would mark the 36th consecutive year that hunting partner Steve Schutte
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 Wing Bone Calls Provide Link to Turkey Hunting Heritage Most people purchase their turkey calls at a retail outlet or from an online catalog.  Outdoor enthusiast, Dave Thomas gets his calls straight from the woods. Skilled woodsman and longtime Police Chief of Lake Mills, Iowa, Thomas has a long running passion for pursuing elk, white-tails, and wild
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  Nebraska Sandhills Provide Exciting Kickoff to Spring Turkey Hunt                                                                                            The night air was clear and crisp.  And although nearly two hours remained until sunrise, hunting partner Dave Thomas and I were already stoked to the absolute max.  High above our Nebraska sandhills camp site, a white hot full moon had fully illuminated the rolling landscape.  The
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  For the second time in a week, we woke up to find the North Iowa landscape totally covered by a layer of heavy wet snow.  The snow goose decoys are also buried, of course, white on white -- a real bummer since new snow geese were moving into the area [and coming to the decoys]
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  This year’s spring snow goose migration is currently winging its way through Northern Iowa.  Climbing the continent toward ancestral breeding grounds, the annual flight has become one of earth’s most spectacular natural events – creating a feathery spring blizzard as more than six million of the noisy white birds simultaneously push their way to subarctic
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I’m pretty sure that most hunters don’t regard cottontail rabbits as trophy game.  But by the time the end of the season rolls around, it’s hard for me to think of them as anything less. The dumb, lame, and lazy are long gone.  Any cottontails still on the landscape are street smart survivors; strictly cream of
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    With piercing yellow eyes and ghostly white plumage, the Siberian goshawk is one of the planet’s most stunningly beautiful raptors.  As large -- or sometimes even larger -- than an American red-tail, it is one of the world’s most efficient winged predators.  Inhabiting one of the harshest climates on earth, the bird is seldom observed
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