Former Iowa State Representative Scott Ourth has been named the Iowa Wildlife Federation executive director. “After an extensive national search, the IWF Board of Directors has named Scott Ourth our new executive director,” reports Board President Rich Leopold.  “Scott’s years of professional experience as a conservation legislator, his passion for Iowa’s natural resources, and his lifetime
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With sixteen full, sunrise to sunset days of high-quality recreational opportunities, Iowa’s special teal seasons are the best single change in waterfowl regulations in the past fifty years.  Tall statement, I know.  But there’s a lot to like about the Iowa teal season.  The weather is mild, the birds abundant.  Always on the lookout for
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Mix the sugar water and fill the backyard feeders.  The fall migration of ruby-throated hummingbirds is underway.  For those wishing to obtain eyeball-to-eyeball encounters with these high speed, feathered buzz bombs; there’s no better time than the present. Although some of the hummingbirds we’re seeing may be homegrown, the bulk of the population is currently arriving
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Iowa’s fall waterfowl seasons kickoff September 1st with a special statewide, sixteen-day teal-only hunt.  The bonus teal event is followed by a dizzying series of split hunting seasons occurring across the state’s North, Central, and Southern zones.  To see what’s going on in your area, check the DNR’s waterfowl hunting regs.  Here today gone tomorrow, migratory
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Iowa’s small game hunting seasons are just around the corner.  Cottontail rabbits, fox squirrels and gray squirrels become legal game September 4th.  Pheasant hunting begins with a two-day youth hunt on October 23 & 24th followed by the regular season which runs from October 30 through January 10, 2022. The best indicator of what this year’s
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The melody was diagnostic.  A great crested flycatcher was singing from the treetops.  I couldn’t see the bird, of course.  Inhabiting the uppermost layers of the forest canopy, the species’ whereabouts is usually obscured by summer vegetation.  This is one bird that is definitely more often heard than seen.  Consequently, most folks remain unfamiliar with
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“There was nothing to see but prairie, green stretches of grassland rolling quietly outward ‘till lost in the haze that trembled on the horizon.” – Those words are excerpted from the 1870’s logbook of Norwegian immigrant, Laurence Larson upon his arrival in Winnebago County, Iowa. A bumblebee collects pollen from a stand of purple prairie clover For contemporary
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The iconic Blanding’s turtle is facing hard times.  By hard times, I mean the species has become so rare that most Iowans – even those who spend considerable time prowling the out-of-doors -- will never see so much as a single Blanding’s in their lifetimes. Although more than a century of wetland drainage has negatively affected
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Following decades of silence, some of Iowa’s most secretive reptiles have begun emitting radio signals from the watery depths of Eagle Lake.  Twelve hours on and twelve hours off, the daily transmissions are being closely monitored by a team of wildlife diversity experts with the Iowa DNR.  The rapidly accumulating data is contributing to a
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The wild mulberry is one of my favorite summer taste treats.  With this year’s mulberry crop currently reaching full maturity, it’s time to grab your bucket and head for the woods.  Wild Mulberries – sweet and nutritious As healthy as they are tasty, mature mulberries pack a nutritional wallop.  A single cupful contains 60 high energy calories:
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The spring songbird migration is winging northward.  And while the larger and more colorful species – such as tanagers, orioles, and grosbeaks – tend to steal the annual show, there are other interesting, though less conspicuous, species that often tend to go unnoticed. Two of my favorites in this category are the white-throated and Harris’ sparrows. 
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The much-anticipated, spring mushroom season is underway.  And although several mushroom species are edible, the famed morel reigns as undisputed king.  Exactly when morels populations will achieve peak numbers is an ever-popular topic of debate.  There are some trustworthy indicators.  Two of the most reliable are temperature and moisture.  In order to fruit, morel mushrooms
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