Washburn’s Outdoor Journal
Photography courtesy of Lowell Washburn, all rights reserved.
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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Migrating Shovelers Provide Spring Photo Shoot
The winter snow had melted. Ponds were thawing and the spring duck migration was gathering a full head of steam. The phone rang. It was fellow waterfowl enthusiast, Al Hancock.
Al often calls with a surprise photo tip, and today was no exception. While driving a country backroad, Hancock had discovered
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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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