It was my turn to cook -- So for last night's dinner, I decided to fix a 'standard batch' of Kung Pao Pheasant.  Just about the time everything was ready, I discovered a lone thigh hiding behind a group of oranges.  Don't know how it ended up there, but I decided to teach that fugitive
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It’s no secret that most Iowans have had enough of winter snow -- have had enough of winter cold.  But spring is on its way.  For one resident bird species, the season has already arrived.  From the remote reaches of Iowa forestlands to tiny farm grove woodlots, female great horned owls are already sitting on
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k   It’s mid-February and the North Iowa landscape remains in lockdown.  Although today’s skies are clear and sunny, morning temperatures have failed to rise above a finger numbing ten degrees below zero.  But the wind is down and, once we’ve dressed in proper attire, it seems a perfect day to explore local wetlands. Once we arrive, the
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  After you've heard or read the same old stuff for about the millionth time,  there are topics that seem to lose a bit of their original luster.  You know, like the standard Wildlife Management 101 speech stating how you can't stockpile small game or those lessons regarding the ultra dynamic nature of local wildlife populations. 
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  The woman at the opposite end of the phone line was -- well, she was hysterical.  Absolutely in a rage, and that’s putting it mildly.  Whenever she’d stop to take a breath, I’d seize the opportunity to try working in a few words of my own.  Didn’t work.  Before I’d get half way through the
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  The Iowa deer season ended Friday, January 10.  It was a tough hunt.  During this year's archery season, I hunted harder but encountered fewer deer in Northern Iowa than I've seen in several decades.  During the peak of the November rut I had 'close encounters' with two mature bucks.  The first was a wide beamed,
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      It was something I’d been putting off for way too long.  Last weekend, I finally crossed the bridge.  Finally made the decision to go cold turkey -- literally.       What I mean to say is that I literally ventured into the snow clad woodlands and attempted to bag an end of the season wild turkey -- with
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  A beautiful sight --  We're happy tonight -- Hawkin' in a winter wonderland.   What a way to end the year -- spectacular below zero morning, beautiful dry powder falling all day long, afternoon high temp of 4 degrees -- this is definitely my kind of weather.  Began the New Year's festivities with an afternoon pheasant hunt
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    Bagging the perfect Christmas goose is a time honored, decade’s long family tradition.  In this instance, the word “perfect” means a bird that is large, white skinned, hog fat and, just as importantly, is totally shot free. Delivering such a bird to the Holiday table is not without challenge.  Relentlessly hunted from subarctic breeding grounds all
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  Today was the last hurrah for Iowa's [north zone] 2013 duck season.  It was about as cold as a duck hunt can get.  Skies were clear and, depending on which station you li  stened to, sunrise temperatures ranged anywhere from 6 to 10 degrees with WNW winds gusting from 35 to 40 mph.  At Clear Lake, it was a
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The sound had an immediate and paralyzing effect.  A sound that could be fairly described as a roar, or perhaps a noise more akin to that of a huge and heavy canvas being rent in twain by some unseen force of nature.  As it turned out, the latter would be a more apt description with
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  A couple more steps, and I would have had this six-pointer inside the blind with me.  I'm experimenting with a new deer call.  I switched to a Primos last week, and have been having some really good responses from smaller bucks.  [I'd love try it out on some big bucks too, but can't seem to
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