SPRING has been in short supply during April. For those few nice warm days we did experience, which were more noticeable for their absence than dominance, we all will welcome warmer weather to arrive and stay. If the old saying "April showers bring May flowers" is to be believed, it got all ...
The featured creature for today is a duck. Not just any duck, but a unique species that is easy to identify once a person gathers a few key markers of its plumage and bill shape. For starters, its name is Northern Shoveler and its Latin name is Spatula clypeata. The bill denotes an obvious ...
WHITE PELICANS (Pelevanus erythrorhynchos) dominated the waters of Sand Lake this past week. They got caught between snow, sleet, rain, wind and more snow events. Their best option was to wait out the weather until it improved. While scattered about the surface waters of Sand Lake, ...
TAXIDERMISTS knew how to make the best presentations of everything from fish, reptiles, small and large mammals at last weekend’s Iowa Taxidermists Association conference. Displays were evaluated by professionals. The tiniest details had to be spot on, correctly molded, tucked, painted and ...
BALD EAGLES are now quite common even in central Iowa. Marshall County has its share of active nests. The outlook is good for more site, some unknown at this time, to be added to a confirmed list and map of where other eagle pairs decided to make a home during 2018. State DNR non-game ...
ON TARGET with a bow and arrow is a fantastic school physical education option. The sport is growing in Iowa and many other states as the word gets out of how much fun this activity can provide, and the discipline it instills in kids to improve themselves. Teachers see how this activity raises ...
WATERFOWL in huge numbers have dominated this past week. Well folks, this natural history moment is not going to fade quickly. All this month it can be expected that the sky on any particular day may have lots of snow geese, white-fronted geese and Canada geese congregating, and talking their ...
SNOW GEESE were everywhere this past week. Any casual observer could hear them. And if you were in the right place with your car, you could see huge flocks plying the air along the Iowa River valley or just about anywhere else even over open farm country. The urge to migrate is so strong ...
THE IOWA DEER CLASSIC returns to the show floor of Des Moines' Hy-Vee Hall next weekend. Mid afternoon on Friday, March 2is when the show doors open for the public. The show continues through Saturday and into the mid afternoon hours of Sunday with a total public draw of about 20,000 people. ...
A WILD GAME FEED is coming this Wednesday, the 21st. As a tribute to the huge amount of delicious protein sources that fish and game provide each and every year, local outdoors enthusiasts and Izaak Walton League club members will have a wide selection of buffet style foods to select along a ...
RING-NECKED PHEASANTS were the subject of a recent wildlife foray this author took this week. With a lot of help from recent snows, I knew the photo blind would be active. So over the course of a two hour sit, I was able to see at least eight pheasants, all males this time, and a host of ...
Today's featured creature, a COOPER'S HAWK (Accipiter cooperi), has been the subject of previous Outdoor Today stories. So I won't try to repeat all the biological fun facts this species has going for it except to say that Mother Nature figured ages ago the proper mix of predators to prey in ...
RIVER ICE has broken up due to the January thaw warmer than average air temperatures over the past week. It is just one of those cycles of nature that we humans get to see, experience and think about. January “thaw” is a term that people for well over a century have placed on a mid winter ...
BALD EAGLES (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) are now common sightings for us Central Iowans. Lots of eagles are gathered at places like the open water below Red Rock dam near Pella. Or if you are so inclined, take a road trip to the Mississippi River. Every place along the big river from Harper's ...
WINTER is reminding us that it has a full grip on us in the northern hemisphere. If you do not like the weather here, well one can travel to any southern hemisphere destination where it is summer. Or we could join our "snow bird friends" in Arizona, Texas, or Florida. Cold arctic air masses ...
My CARDINAL image was partly good luck. Wildlife photographers have to take what Mother Nature provides regardless of what our human desires may be. But in this case, an ordinary female Cardinal at the feeder station, was chowing down on sunflower seeds when a gust of wind caused her head ...
HAPPY NEW YEAR tomorrow. We will say goodbye to 2017 and look forward to an interesting 2018. The future as always has its knowns and unknowns. As outdoor enthusiasts, us human types who love the great outdoors will find numerous ways to accommodate and adapt to each new day of the new year. ...
It was a clear, cold and starlight night. A blanket of the whitest snow bedded down the valley of the Iowa ... there were no lights from farms or villages ... because there were no farms of villages ... it was 'most two thousand years ago! Like the blanket of snow which covered the valley ... ...
WONDERS OF WILDLIFE happen all the time. Sometimes it transpires in front of you without too much effort on your part. Other times a lot of hard work results in making things happen to capture mental memories or better yet, capture images with a camera so those instances of time can be shared ...
A SNOWY OWL (Bubo scandiacus) is this week's featured creature. I feel lucky to be able to document its presence, make many full frame photographic images of it with the a 400 mm lens, and just enjoy seeing this big white raptor. My tip on where to find it came from local birding enthusiast ...