There are 225 designated standard routes. When all the observational data is submitted and compiled, biologists can use the data to gauge trends, up, down or steady, for every region in Iowa. The data will support the fall hunting season.

Because ring-necked pheasants are a primary species to observe during this census exercise, roadside counts may focus on this colorful game bird, but not to the exclusion of all other wild critters that may happen to be alongside county gravel roadways trying to dry off from the previous night’s heavy dew as new warming sunlight provides the power to evaporate dew on the feathers or fur of the animals. I have in the past accompanied state conservation officers during roadside counts. That requires getting up early so precisely at sunrise a route can begin, and observations can begin.

The drive is made at a leisurely 10 mph, or less. Binoculars are at the ready, and when a hen pheasant and her half grown chicks wander along a road shoulder, a quick count and map location is noted. This action is repeated until the end of that 30-mile route is at hand.

Iowa DNR biologists use other tools to help determine trends of wildlife populations, and survival rates, during the past winter, spring and summer. From models concerning the weather — snowfall last winter, rainfall in the spring, or lack of, and spring and summer temperatures, a general overview is possible of what to expect in the field. Roadside counts help to confirm or adjust what the models may suggest. Roadside counts provide the best data.

When all the data is compiled, results will be posted online at www.iowadnr.gov/pheasantsurvey usually by early September. Iowa’s pheasant hunting season begins on Oct. 26, 2024 and will run through Jan. 10, 2025. A daily limit of three roosters is allowed.

——–

During several of my late afternoon forays, I have observed deer, both fawns alone or with their doe deer mother, and I have been fortunate a few times to see antlered bucks with their velvet antlers sticking high above their heads. By the end of August, those antlers will be absent velvet, a function of having become fully grown for that deer this year, and growth has reached its maximum in part due to reduced sunlight hours.

The inevitable tick of Mother Nature’s clock is at work. One item for sportsmen and women who observe deer this summer and early fall will be to take care to note the possibility of a deer disease.

This particular malady is called Hemorrhagic disease, or commonly called EHD or Bluetongue. This disease is sporadic and is usually associated with hot dry weather and the hatch of a midge, an insect, that transmits the disease vector.

EHD comes on fast for infected deer. The deer seek water and may die within a few days. The deer’s body will appear to be in very good condition.

Outbreaks in southern Iowa counties happened in 2012, 2013, 2019 and 2023. It is believed to be an under reported situation because people are not generally out and about in deer habitats until the beginning of archery deer season on Oct. 1.

The DNR has a Deer Hunting and Deer Health Webpage (www.iowadnr.gov/deer) that can be opened to read more about and learn more about EHD. In contrast to EHD is CWD, called Chronic Wasting Disease.

This entirely different, takes a long time to show itself on infected deer, years in fact, before an emaciated looking deer just looks in very poor health. CWD is spread by the close nose-to-nose contact with food sources where saliva may be picked up by other deer.

This disease is also long-lived within soil particles, and evidence also suggests that CWD is taken up by plant roots and when that vegetation may be eaten in the future by deer, the disease finds a new host. One method to combat CWD spreading is to not feed deer anything that causes the animals to concentrate their feeding habits. No artificial feeding sites are the way to go.

You may think all this doom and gloom talk about deer health means that many deer are sick. Not so.

Most deer are healthy, and for many reasons still unknown to science, overall deer populations are okay. It is the negative publicity of sporadic incidences that make the news.

Reality says we just need to be aware of the possibilities. However, a truly sick looking deer should be reported to conservation officer Brett Reece (641-751-0931) or wildlife biologist Rodney Ellingson (641-751-9767).

——–

The new 2024-2025 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp is now available at the Marshalltown post office. It costs $25.

The stamp is sought after by collectors for one, and is a legal requirement for sportsmen/women who may hunt migratory birds later this fall. Duck and geese may be primary species being pursued but other game like doves, coots, woodcock, rails and snipe are covered by the migratory title.

Hunters must have a signed stamp on their person ,or a cell phone app proof of purchase, to show to a conservation officer. The stamp this year features an artist’s painting of a pintail duck. Funds from the sale of these unique stamps are used for wetland and waterfowl breeding, migration and wintering habitats. A huge bonus from stamp sales income is the benefit to hundreds of other migrating birds from wren sized to birds of prey and many species of fur bearing mammals.

Reptiles and amphibians benefit also, along with a huge list of insect varieties. Stamp money goes a long way to help conservation efforts.

——–

In the news, there have been lots of Olympian events in Paris, France. Athletes from all over the world are competing in several hundred different categories of outdoor sports, games and skill sets of the highest caliber.

Television coverage of those events has dominated the excitement, joy and sorrows of intense competitions. Every one of these athletes are winners for even being eligible to participate. It is a gathering of the best of the best.

As an outdoor sports person and advocate for the value of disciplined sports involving firearms marksmanship, or archery proficiency, I have had to seek out via the internet video coverage to see and learn how those athletes conduct themselves. I am very interested in the archery aspects, seeing bow and arrow events by men and women who are top ranked individuals.

I also enjoy seeing shotgunners at trap and skeet ranges, or others with their air rifles, or handguns, repeatedly hitting bullseye targets time after time. I applaud them all for their devotion to a chosen sport.

I encourage you to seek out any specific sports events of interest to you, not just a few of the Olympian events garnering attention of television producers. There is a lot more than just track, swimming, and ball games. It is good that people can choose and focus on an activity that suits them for which they attempt to reach a gold, silver or bronze medal. Congratulations to all of them.

——–

August is a new month, and it is here in all its summertime glory, good and bad, as we may care to judge it. Aug. 1 had a sunrise at 6:04 a.m., which will become 6:35 a.m. by the 31st. Sunsets will also tell us of shorter day lengths when we go from 8:29 p.m. to 8:46 p.m.

The pace of day lengths getting shorter will increase its rate noticeably in September and October, still a ways off. We had a day length on Aug. 1 of 14 hours 26 minutes, and by the 31st, it will change to 13 hours and 11 minutes.

August will see birds like the Hummingbird preparing for migration. Blue winged teal are one of the first to migrate at the first hint of shorter days and colder weather in Canada.

Big birds like white pelicans know the time is coming to begin moving southward. Lots of shorebirds, many species that are small and hard to identify at first glance, are taking Mother Nature’s hint to head toward warmer winter places to call home for a few months.

An interesting note of nature is this: on Aug. 16, 1956, Dutch elm disease was confirmed in Iowa by botanists. This was the beginning of a long time frame demise of this stately shade tree that lined many a city street side.

A little beetle from Europe was the cause. Its burrowing action in elm trees causes the tree to try to defend itself by plugging moisture pathways.

The problem is that this action kills the tree. A wide variety of tree species avoids the loss of pure stands of just one species.

——–

“Inspiration is merely the reward for working every day.”

— Charles Baudelaire

——–

Garry Brandenburg is the retired director of the Marshall County Conservation Board. He is a graduate of Iowa State University with a BS degree in Fish & Wildlife Biology.

Contact him at:

P.O. Box 96

Albion, IA 50005