Pursuing late season cottontails is one of my favorite forms of winter recreation.  It’s a team effort, and I never go it alone but always include my longtime feathered hunting partner, Attila.  Attila is my male goshawk and we’ve been chasing rabbits together for fifteen seasons now.  I can say with certainty that you’ll rarely
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Iowa’s deer season ended January 10.  Wary, secretive, and highly intelligent, Iowa’s only species of big game is more than willing to provide hunters with a wide array of outdoor challenges.  For me, this year’s hunt offered a rich mix of peaks and valleys, highs and lows.  By the time I took up the bow, the
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          A Day With The Swans In Iowa’s North Zone, the goose season runs until January 7.  And although winter weather fronts were causing goose numbers to rapidly dwindle, I decided to keep hunting until the last birds had moved south. For today’s hunt I had chosen a snow-covered, corn field a couple of miles from Clear
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Sometimes it’s hard to tell which activity is most enjoyable – pursuing wild game, preparing wild game, or eating wild game.  What I do know is that all three endeavors rank high on my list of favorite pastimes which brings us to today’s outdoor topic – preparing the Christmas goose. Ready for the table – The
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The wild turkey is an exceptionally wary bird.  Spooked of its own shadow, a seasoned gobbler is suspicious of everything he sees and hears.  Set on perpetual hair trigger, he’s ready to run or fly at the drop of a hat. By contrast, the Canada goose is a thinker.  The honker is a smart bird –
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Those of us who pursue ducks, geese, or wild turkeys are well acquainted with the effectiveness of game calling.  Game calling is so important, in fact, that most waterfowl or turkey hunters utilize -- not just one -- but rather carry several calls in order to meet the ever-changing challenges that accompany the particular species
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Winter bird feeding has become one of Iowa’s most popular cold weather pastimes.  Strategically placed feeders provide we humans with fascinating, through-the-window entertainment while, at the same time, saving foraging winter birdlife valuable time and energy.  During periods of extreme weather, bird feeders have the potential to increase wildlife survival.  Simply put, bird feeders are
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“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, Outdoor Editor, Milwaukee Journal                       _______________________________________________ Gordon MacQuarrie first penned those words in November 1937.  In the 85
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It’s late fall.  The days are getting shorter, the nights cooler.  Crisp sunrise landscapes are white with frost.  For Iowa’s 60,000 archery deer hunters, the message is clear.  Time has come to literally climb a tree.  Deer hunters, like the game they pursue, come in all shapes and sizes.  But although exterior appearances may vary, deer
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 With temperatures headed for the basement; it was time to make my move Have I ever told you how much I love wood ducks?  They’re unique in every way and I’ll do whatever it takes to watch, photograph and, of course, to hunt them.  One of the many traits that makes them so endearing is that
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The ruby-throated hummingbird is one of Iowa’s most endearing examples of backyard birdlife.  Although hummingbirds nest throughout the state, they are never more plentiful than during fall migration.   Beginning in late August, visitors from as far away as northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ontario, Canada will have begun arriving in Iowa.  Although hummingbird numbers usually peak
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One of the things I enjoy most about Iowa’s early duck seasons – in addition to the ducks, of course – are the sights and sounds provided by the vast diversity of life forms that make the autumn marsh their home. Some days are more dramatic than others and my latest best example occurred near the
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