Travel is an adventure, and since my interests take in a broad pallet of interesting natural history related subjects, I often pursue backroad excursions to find interesting places. It has worked well for me over many decades of time. South Dakota never disappoints, and, I might add, all of ...

The Mann Wetland site south of Albion and just east of Timmons Grove (north) is slated for its makeover habitat enhancement work beginning this fall. I highlighted this project about one year ago in my Outdoors Today story of Oct. 30, 2022, when news was received by the Marshall County ...

Fall officially arrives on Sept. 23, the autumnal equinox. Birds that migrate do not have to consult a calendar to figure that out. Their brains are hardwired to interpret day length/night lengths, and the azimuth of the sun overhead as our planet earth orbits around it. In addition, little ...

OTTER CREEK MARSH is a river bottom wetland complex totaling over 3,500 acres near the Iowa River in Tama County. During normal times, that is during years when ‘normal’ rainfall events happen throughout the year, water levels in the various pools at the marsh can be controlled via gate ...

The Iowa River is an excellent example we humans can observe to help us grasp the intensity of drought-like conditions. The river’s water level is low and its flow rate is very slow, so at this point in an Iowa summer, that is not really unexpected or unusual in and of itself. Obviously ...

Wild turkeys made my day recently. I wasn’t particularly looking for these majestic large game birds. However, along a recently mowed fire lane at the Iowa River Wildlife Area, out stepped two tom turkeys right in front of me. They did not know I was close. I did not know they were close. ...