No matter how many time I've seen it, I am always amazed at the way late season Canada geese respond to new snow.  Highly educated, December Canadas are usually smarter than the people trying to hunt them.  As long as the ground is bare, the birds are safe.  They can spot a phony decoy spread
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  Spend enough time in the out-of-doors and, sooner or later, you’re going to witness an event that is so over the top -- so overwhelmingly improbable -- that you’ll be reluctant to tell your story to anyone -- including your closest friends.  My end of the season archery deer hunt was one of those occasions. The
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  Intermittent morning flurries had turned to steady snowfall by mid-day, and the weatherman was calling for additional accumulations of three to five inches.  It didn’t take a genius to determine that whatever waterfowl remained in the area would be in a panic.  Canada geese and mallard ducks would be looking for corn and were probably
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  A lot of folks are still wondering what happened to all those thousands of mallards that blew through Iowa a few days ago.  Well, it appears as if a lot of them may have already ended up in Arkansas.  This year's just completed November duck survey revealed that Arkansas has recently been inundated with an
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  “Have you thus sat on a snowy day and squinted through the white curtain at those mail-carrying bluebills?  Until you have courted bluebills in the snow, you have not tasted of the purer delights of waterfowling.”  Gordon MacQuarrie  November, 1937 _ Although I love all types of waterfowl hunting, I especially love hunting that group of ducks collectively
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Even by Northern Plains standards, the season’s first winter storm was one for the record books.  The massive weather system -- officially dubbed Winter Storm Astro -- roared onto the mid-western scene on Tuesday, November 11, delivering subzero wind chills and dumping more than a foot of snow on portions of Minnesota and Wisconsin.  In
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November the 8th. If I was only allowed a single day in the entire year to hunt white-tailed deer, then November the 8th is the date I’d be sitting in my stand – full of anticipation -- praying, waiting and watching for the buck of my dreams to enter my life. By the time November 8th
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  One of the things I enjoy most about fall turkey hunting is just how ridiculously loud the flocks often become at right at daybreak. This morning’s hunt was no exception.   The outing actually began last night when my son Matt called to remind me that we both had fall turkey tags and that the weather forecast
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  Enough is enough. No more denial.  No more looking over my shoulder.  Right here and right now, I’m going to come clean.  And although I’ll likely be banned from future DU banquets and other outdoor social events, I’m going to admit -- Well, I’m going to admit that I shoot coots.  Sometimes I shoot lots
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  Warm in the sunshine, but cool in the shade. That’s just one of a thousand things that I like about October -- my favorite month of the year.  October is the one month that nobody complains about.  For those who enjoy the outdoors, it is a time of infinite variety.  Fall fishing is at its
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         If you're one of those folks who utilize backyard hummingbird feeders, then you already know that this year's fall migration has been a World Class, Record Book event.  On the south side of Clear Lake, for example, I've been installing sugar water feeders in the same place for 31 years and this year's hummingbird
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