Flora & Fauna

There are few things as exhilarating as dueling with the king-of-spring – the wild turkey.  The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission is here to help as educators and biologists answer your spring turkey hunting questions and provide strategy-insight with a live Twitter chat on Friday, April 10.  Follow along on Twitter from noon to 1 p.m. (CDT).  Tweet questions to @NEGameandParks using #NebraskaTurkey. If you are unable to participate during that time, tweet your question before the fun begins. Whether …

What I am about to tell you may be used by some to justify the next purchase of a rifle, bow or shotgun.   You may want to tape this to the refrigerator as soon as you read it.   But I guarantee you that, if you are a shooting sports enthusiast, hunter or angler, you will swell up with pride.  How the funding for the greates conservation model the world has ever known all came together to provide us the hunting, fishing and …

Nebraska may be the best place for the turkey hunter.  The spring season kicked off this morning – 30 minutes before sunrise – with archery.  Just over two weeks from now on April 11, turkey-chasers 15 yrs and under can break out the shotguns.  A week after on April 18, the rest of us can, too.  All spring seasons run through May 31. With healthy bird populations and some great opportunities on many state Wildlife Management Areas and land enrolled …

“When I am birdwatching, I experience what psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi calls “flow.” I lose the sense of time; I lose the sense of being encapsulated in a body with all its hungers, aches, and limitations. I get lost in beauty and harmony, memory and knowledge, pattern and depth. The borders between senses dissolve and I experience synesthesia.” Danusha Goska, American Thinker. I’ve been wanting to get there for sometime to check out the various bird species. I have no excuses. …

I have three large oak trees in my yard.  When I am up on the roof cleaning gutters or raking 16 tons of leaves, I sometimes mumble unpleasantries about those trees.  But then every once in awhile, and it has happened frequently the past few weeks, after dark, I hear an unique call outside.  It sounds like this: On occasion the kids and I can shine a flashlight up into one of those trees and even spot the little screech owl …

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission has completed the second year of an annual mule deer survey in portions of the Pine Ridge management unit in northwestern Nebraska. On Feb. 6-9, Commission employees used a contracted helicopter to repeat the 2014 mule deer survey. Commission staff counted 758 deer in 429 square miles of the unit compared to 862 in the same areas in 2014. The data will be compared to mule deer numbers in other areas of the state …

Many of us are counting down the days until the start of spring turkey season. So it is with great delight we announce the 2015 round of Nebraska Game and Parks – Spring Turkey Hunting Workshops. These 2-hr, learn-to-hunt events are designed for those with little to no experience chasing gobblers, but even seasoned hunters will learn a new tactic or two as Specialists discuss equipment, calling strategies and turkey tips.  First one kicks off this Saturday. If you like …

On this week’s edition of my Weekly Outdoor Report on Omaha’s WOWT 6 News, we’re heading to Nebraska’s central Platte River valley between Grand Island and Kearney to view the spectacular spring migration stopover of sandhill cranes and other wild fowl. It’s quite an experience! Check out these great photos of the cranes taken by co-worker Katie Stacey of our NE Game and Parks Omaha-Metro Office. Experience the movement and sounds of the world’s largest gathering of cranes LIVE Thursday …

The University of Nebraska (UNL) – Lincoln Wildlife Club extends an invitation to the public for their annual Wildlife Club Awards Banquet on April 11 at the Izaak Walton League, with the social hour beginning at 5:30pm. This year, UNL Lincoln Wildlife Club will be hosting John Chapo, the president and CEO of The Lincoln Children’s Zoo, as the keynote speaker. His presentation is titled “The Lincoln Children’s Zoo- Small Zoo, Large Success.” The banquet, which includes a catered dinner, is $20 …

Brrrr! It’s been so cold outside! Temperatures have been running far below normal as evidenced this past week by the large thermometer I have in our backyard. Off and on, I continue to suffer from cabin fever! How about you? From my vantage point in eastern Nebraska, we’re kind of in between seasons in the state’s outdoor scene, too. As a sportsman, I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of snow and Ross’s geese for light goose conservation order hunting here in eastern Nebraska and open water fishing for various …