Lots of rainfall.  Lots of spring and summer ponds.  Lots of nesting ducks during 2014.  That’s the official summary for this year’s North American Breeding Duck and Habitat Survey released this week by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.  From North Country lakes to the Gulf Coast bayous, the annual report spells good news for
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  Torrential downpours and flash flooding seem to have dominated much of the June weatherscape.  And although it may not compare with the devastation seen during last year's never ending rainfall, area fields and woodlands are plenty wet.   Surplus moisture, coupled with warming temperatures, has created an ideal climate for the production of summer mushrooms. 
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  The guy standing ahead of me at the grocery checkout had just placed four jars of grape jelly on the counter.  Grape jelly.  That was it; nothing else. “Orioles,” he said with a grin.  “I’ve never seen so many.  They’re almost eating us out of house and home.” “These jars will be empty in a week,” he
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  With its distinctive zebra-striped head, crow sized body, and maniacal call, the pileated woodpecker is in a league of its own.  It is one of my favorite woodland birds. Finding an active territory is easy.  The equivalent of feathered jack hammers; pileateds employ powerful chiseled beaks to whack away three and four-inch chunks of bark
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  Once they’ve been at it for a few seasons, most mushroom hunters will have amassed a collection of stories recounting their grandest moments in the spring woodlands.  Most tales are accounts of big hauls and mother lodes.  We’ve struck it big a time or two ourselves, and the ‘big finds’ never fail to provide cherished
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    Only got close to one turkey today [a hen], but there were plenty of other interesting things to observe in Iowa's spring woodlands.  Plum, and other, blossoms are really beginning to perfume the woods.  What an incredible time of year!    

  Of all the wild game the outdoors has to offer, no species is more predictably unpredictable than the elusive wild turkey.  To pursue the bird is to engage in a never ending cycle of extreme highs and extreme lows. Yesterday, the turkeys had it going their way.  I didn’t hear many birds at daybreak, but was
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  Spring has finally arrived; dandelions are beginning to bloom.  For ultra-urbanized lawn care fanatics, the annual appearance of the dandelion’s familiar yellow flower is most unwelcome.  But for those of us who stalk the elusive wild mushroom, it’s a sure sign of good things to come. No one can argue that the full flavored morel mushroom
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    There are few things I enjoy more than hunting blue-winged teal as they migrate through Iowa each September.  Although they can easily withstand a chill, they usually choose not to; and there is no denying that the speedy BWT is partial to warm climates.  The first to move south each fall, blue-wings are also the
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  Spring turkey hunting has many side benefits.  One of the most rewarding is all of the interesting things you encounter other than turkeys.  A good example recently occurred as I spotted an energetic little bird feeding along a brushy deer trail.  Although the bird was definitely "wren-like", I knew there was something different.   Slowly
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      Unless you spent the entire day in a corner of your Mother's basement, it would have been nearly impossible to miss the epic migration of broad-winged hawks that  moved into Northern Iowa during the afternoon of Friday, April 25, 2014.  It was one of those rare warm and sunny days [only the third time the sun had shown its
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  The stage is set.  The house lights are dimming.  Right on schedule, the evening performance begins.  As the sunset explodes into a dazzling array of color, a solitary, quail-sized bird launches from the forest floor.  Spiraling ever higher, the sky dancer’s black silhouette soon hovers more than 300 feet above its woodland home.  With the
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