By Christine Dimke

When the alarm goes off in the morning, it is always a struggle of will.

“Do I go pheasant hunting or do I roll over, pull up the covers and go back to sleep?”

As music blares out of the radio, I decide to just get up and see if dad is awake. If not, then I can go back to sleep. Of course, he’s been up for an hour preparing and I’d better get going or we’ll be late.

I fall back into bed and the dream begins………I sigh and think of how cold it is this morning and how warm my bed is. I go get my stuff and remember my hat to cover my ‘disaster zone’ hair since I did not and will not brush it this morning. That is how it all starts.

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How Iowa is bringing back the nation’s largest waterfowl

by John Linquist

Photo by Roger Hill.

Everyone loves watching swans swimming on lakes and wetlands, but not that long ago trumpeter swans were almost extinct. Prior to the settlement of the Midwest, trumpeter swans nested throughout the region. However, human settlement and wetland drainage soon wiped them out.

Trumpeter swans were first given nationwide protection in 1918 when the United States, Canada and Mexico signed the International Migratory Bird Treaty. A swan count in the early 1930s showed that only 69 existed in the United States, and all of them lived at the Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in southwest Montana. more…

Tracking wildlife through the places they live is a great way to learn more about what types of food they like, what types of cover they use for shelter and how big of an area they live in.   Now that it’s winter, tracking becomes much easier in the fresh snow and is something you can do with your friends and family.  After a fresh snow get a group together and get outside and look for tracks.  Make a list of the types of animals each finds and see who can identify the highest number of different species; or have everyone follow the tracks of the same species and find out what they ate that day and where they went for shelter.  Remember it’s always a good idea to back track animals so you don’t disturb them during winter and cause more stress than mother nature is already putting on them.  What species of animal tracks can you identify?

What story does this photo tell? Can you identify the tracks in the snow?

by Dave Books

A friend and I were hunting pheasants along a marshy lakeshore when my black Lab, Jenny, perked up her ears. We got ready for a rooster to flush as she charged ahead into the mud and shallow water. Suddenly, a small brown bird with a long bill burst out of the reeds, flying low and making a noise like a rusty gate. We watched as the little bird flew rapidly across the marsh, twisting from side to side, uttering Scape! Scape!

The author with Mearns quail.

“Jacksnipe,” I said to my friend Joe. “Why didn’t you shoot? The season’s open.”

“Same reason you didn’t,” he laughed. “I was expecting a rooster pheasant, not a Wilson’s snipe.”

“Wilson’s snipe? I thought they were called jacksnipe,” I said.

Joe is a botanist and an avid bird-watcher. When it comes to plants and birds, he knows his stuff. “The snipe is named for Alexander Wilson,” he said. “Wilson was a naturalist and artist who came to America from Scotland in the late 1700s. He traveled around collecting and painting birds, and eventually wrote a book about them.”

At that point Jenny began to whine and give us her “What are we waiting for?” look.

“Okay, Jenny,” I said. “Find us another bird.”

“Where there’s one snipe, there should be more,” Joe said. “They’re migrating south this time of year.” more…

By Boomer the intrepid bird dog

Author: Hi, Mr. Quail, do you mind if I ask you a few questions?

Quail: What are you going to do if I say no, shoot me?

Author: No, of course not. One of the rules of journalism is “never shoot the interviewee.”

Boomer: Would you mind if I just picked you up gently and carried you around?

Quail: Over my dead body, drooly whisker face!

Author: Please you two, knock it off. Mr. Quail, may I call you “Bob?”

Quail: My name is not “Bob White,” it is Colinus virginianus. “Bob White” is the human way of describing one of the calls I make. You may call me “Colinus.” more…