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
Read More

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
Read More

    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
Read More

  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
Read More

  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
Read More

  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
Read More

  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
Read More

  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
Read More

  “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
Read More

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
Read More

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
Read More

  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
Read More