It would be hard for anyone to miss this annual spectacle. If you’ve been out and about during recent rainy days, you’ve undoubtedly seen it for yourself -- scores of tiger salamanders solemnly marching over hill and dale toward winter quarters. Although most wildlife migrations occur in the heavens, the annual passage of salamanders takes place
Read More

  All is not quiet on the Western Front. It is, in fact, getting noisier by the day.  Across the vast expanse of the American West; the annual elk rut is in full swing.  From the rugged slopes of northern Montana to the rim rock canyons of Arizona; majestic heavy antlered bulls have gathered to scream,
Read More

The morning duck hunt was off to a slow start.  Although several teal had visited my location prior to legal shooting time, no birds had appeared in the twenty minutes since sunrise.  That's the way teal hunting often is; lots of flocks milling around in the half light of dawn with most birds settling in
Read More

Iowa's bonus teal season has been running for ten days now and Iowa duck hunters have been enjoying some incredible "bonus fun".  But following several consecutive meals of grilled blue-wing; it was definitely time to change the menu.  So, instead of placing the baked wild rice on the left side of the duck -- we
Read More

No one will argue that the 2014 Iowa dove season is easily our best yet.  So far, there have been five straight, back to back days of high intensity wing shooting excitement.  Today was perhaps the most exciting yet.  Plummeting temperatures and brisk NW winds triggered a mass movement of doves.  But the morning got
Read More

  The popularity of Iowa’s dove season continues to grow.  This year, for example, there were actual “dove camps” on public areas.  On the eve of Monday’s September 1st Opener, hunters’ campfires glimmered near the outskirts of favored sunflower plots -- more reminiscent of traditional duck openers than what we’ve seen for Iowa dove hunts. But although
Read More

The attached photo is my idea of the 'Perfect Ten'.  The scene occurred Friday afternoon near the north border of Wind Cave National Park.  While driving the backroads I spotted the horns of two nice pronghorns protruding above the top of a prairie ridgeline.  Parking the truck and grabbing the camera, I began the stalk;
Read More

We’ve all heard that old saying --- ‘Big things come in small packages’.  No one knows who first coined the phrase, but I can’t help but wonder if they weren’t referring to the blue-winged teal.  A champion long distance traveler of the Mississippi Flyway; the diminutive blue-wing is indeed a mighty bird wrapped in a
Read More

    I’ve spent a better part of the past eight days sitting on a South Dakota prairie staring at bison.  Although viewing opportunities have varied, there have been some real “Dances With Wolves” moments when peering over a ridgetop, I’ve been greeted to the sight of hundreds of bison methodically grazing the valley floor.  Most of
Read More

“ . . It soon became apparent that I had become witness to a predatory blood bath of dynamic proportions.  Gnats and mosquitoes were dying by the thousands!”   Back when I was a school kid, organized summer youth activities were virtually nonexistent.  Consequently, we invented our own entertainment.  For boys, the Dog Days of August were
Read More

For most budding waterfowl hunters, an early season blue-winged teal is the very first duck brought to bag.  I was no exception to that rule, and shot my very first blue-wing during my very first duck hunt.  It was just Dad and I, and the hunt took place in Northern Iowa along a quiet backwater
Read More

  Hummingbirds and Jewelweed The ruby-throated hummingbird is aptly named.  When illuminated by even the slightest hint of sunlight, the male’s ruby red bib sparkles with all the intensity of the finest jewel.  The hummingbird’s glossy emerald back is equally iridescent, making the species one of our most attractive backyard birds. But it is the hummingbird’s unique flight
Read More