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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  It's likely that every Iowa turkey hunter has had dreams of finding themselves surrounded by cooperative spring gobblers.  Although the dream usually remains unfulfilled, that's the exact scenario that unfolded for Lake Mills Police Chief and traditional archery enthusiast Dave Thomas this weekend.  After placing his blind and a single decoy in the midst of
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  We all know that turkey hunting success -- or failure -- can spin on a dime.  My son Matt and I each got a good reminder of that this morning.  Sequestered in a favorite woodland, I heard my first gobble while it was still pitch black at 5:25.  The tom was soon answered by a
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  I'm thinkin' that this morning's kickoff to the 2014  Spring Turkey Season wasn't exactly what area hunters had in mind.  With heavy overcast, below freezing temperatures, a blanket of new snow on the ground, and winds gusting to 38 mph; the prognoses seemed bleak.  But it was still Opening Day after all, and no turkey
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Swarming northward from their winter resorts; tens of thousands of lesser scaup [bluebill] ducks are currently making their way through Iowa.  Ever since I was introduced to the species during the 1960s, I have loved watching and, of course, hunting bluebills.  With this spring's flight at its peak, I grabbed my camera and a big
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  The beauty of today's spectacular sunrise was enhanced even further by the rattling gobble of a nearby tom.  This morning, I had decided to visit a stand of oaks located about three miles from where I did yesterday's morning turkey shoot.  Although official sunrise was still 45 minutes away, a single bird was already sounding 
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Less than a week to go until the first segment of Iowa's spring turkey season begins --- The countdown is on.  I've been playing with the birds off and on since mid-February, and this morning was the best yet.  Although toms were actively gobbling on the roost, things cranked up even more once they hit
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For waterfowl hunting enthusiast, Greg Duesenberg, this year’s spring snow goose season has been as good as it gets.  The first big waves of migrating snow geese arrived in Northern Iowa during mid-March, and hunting has remained good since.  Success has been so high, in fact, that Duesenberg even managed to bag a goose that
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  The ice is shifting, open water areas are enlarging, and the bluebills have arrived at Clear Lake.  Although our latest 4-inch snowfall ended early this morning, the NW winds continued to rage with gusts exceeding 40 mph.  Light conditions remained gloomy, but there were just too many birds on the wing to stay indoors.  Finding
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I like to tell people that modern-day snow geese are the smartest birds in the sky.  When under the direct supervision of experienced adults, even first year geese can be almost impossible to dupe; and bagging one can present hunters with an extreme challenge.  There are still some occasional exceptions, however.  One such episode occurred
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