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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Funny how a few inches of fresh snow can really make backyard bird feeders come alive.  That’s what happened across most of Iowa this week when a fast moving winter storm dropped anywhere from 4 to 15 inches of white stuff on the state last Sunday. Although a wide variety of birds stopped by to raid
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By the time late January rolls around, a lot of bird hunters will have enjoyed their fair share of pheasant breast recipes.  I agree that properly prepared pheasant breast is a real taste pleaser.  But every once in awhile it's also fun to shift gears a bit.  Here's a quick and easy way to break
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  Falconry: the pursuit  of wild game with a trained raptor; the sport of hunting with hawks. Humans have been chasing wild game with trained hawks for somewhere in the vicinity of 4,000 years now, making falconry one of our most ancient forms of hunting.  I’ve been practicing the sport for 30. t its most basic level, falconry
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Iowa's late archery seasons [deer and turkey] closed January 10th.  But that doesn't necessarily mean it's time to stow the bow.  There are still plenty of reasons to roam the winter woodlands and pursuing the gray squirrel is certainly one of them.  Although squirrels don't present much of a target they are abundant and-- with
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    Late Season Archery - Round 1: I could already tell that it was going to be a challenging morning in the great out-of-doors.  The overnight temperature had plunged to ten degrees below zero and increasing NW winds were howling in excess of 30 mph.  Wind chill values were at 40 below – or an even more
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  North Central Iowa:  Six beautiful inches of new powder fell on the region this week.  But for most people, the natural winter beauty was soon overshadowed by subzero temperatures, polar winds and wholesale school and other public events closings.  By the time daylight arrived this morning, temperatures had dropped to ten below and increasing NW
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