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Outdoors Today

Feeding frenzy on dead fish by gulls and eagles

Welcome to another edition of Outdoors Today. It never fails to amaze this author how a bit of interesting observations can turn into another lesson from Mother Nature’s life lessons book. Today we will explore an example that illustrates life cycles in its own unique way. Last week I ended ...

Pelicans make precision flying look easy

WHITE PELICANS (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) are a normal springtime sighting of big birds as the spring season continues to gather momentum. A bird of freshwater lakes and ponds, this large bird is all white except for its black wing tips and outer secondary feathers. A wingspan of nearly ...

Robins adapt to natural variation of weather

ROBINS are just one surefire indicator of spring. Hurray for their arrival. Hurray for their tenacity to adapt and overcome weather obstacles as they journey northward. Soon more robins will follow, and other migrating birds will start to arrive at our mid latitude sites. Many of us human ...

The chips are down, beaver chewed chips

Beaver (Castor canadensis), is this week’s featured creature. Last week while I was exploring natural areas adjacent to the Iowa River, I spotted at a distance several cottonwood trees with damaged bases. It turns out the damage was caused by the teeth of beavers who had made serious ...

Wild turkeys well equipped to cope with weather

Wild turkeys find the spotlight for this weekend edition of Outdoors Today. I located this flock while passing by a nearby roadway. With a camera and its long telephoto lens, this scribe captured another moment of time when wildlife was just going about their business of survival. It was ...

Cold weather and hibernation

Hibernation: this entire idea came to this author’s attention again during a casual conversation with several friends. They were commenting on our recent cold air weather pattern that made them say “I wish I could hibernate.” For us humans that idea is something we can attempt to ...