Flora & Fauna

We hunters are continually in search of tips and secrets that will help out in the pursuit of our prey.  We read articles, watch videos, talk to biologists and listen to experienced hunters.  There are many great sources of good information.  There is also a lot of misinformation out there.  Some are Old Hunter Tales, others are often repeated myths and a few simply outright lies. I have several people to thank for getting me into duck hunting.  Rhett was …

Youth-only waterfowl seasons are nothing new.  They have been around for about a decade and a half.  I took part almost religiously for the first half of their existence, thanks largely to my involvement with the local Ducks Unlimited chapter and my excitement for being in the marsh.  Though, my interest in the special event has not waned, my fall work obligations have all but kept me from taking part.  Not this year.  This year will be different…in more than …

After visiting with a Chadron community service organization last week, I wrapped up the presentation with a slideshow of wildlife photos from western Nebraska and moved on to questions. One question kind of caught me off-guard. A friend in the audience asked why I hadn’t included any photos of snakes. I didn’t even realize that I had not given any time to reptiles, but he was right. I was certainly guilty of favoring other classes above reptiles. Mammals, birds, amphibians …

A lot of people can tell you about the beauty of the Sandhills from the road, the forever green dunes rolling by at sixty five miles an hour. Or they can wax poetic from the seat of a canoe or tube—the slow meander of sandy bluffs and horizontal cedar trees. To many Nebraskans, the Sandhills are its scenic secret, an entire ecology different from anything else in the world.  But the very thing that makes them so beautiful also makes …

I know it is August, and folks do not think that “fall” starts until September.  But if you look for the subtle signs, fall has already begun.  I was reminded of that earlier this week when my “co-blogger” Joel Jorgensen blogged about Attracting Hummingbirds–It’s Time .  If you watch closely, you will start seeing some Monarch butterflies heading south on a north wind, and now is when the hummingbirds are migrating back through Nebraska.  It will not be long and the …

Fishing and hunting yarns and photos have always been part of Nebraska’s great outdoor scene. Beginning in the early 1900s and for decades thereafter, Nebraska postcards depicted altered, exaggerated images of game, fish and agriculture. These were done to promote the unique aspects of a place or product as well as to document local history. They were also used to lure folks to the Cornhusker State to hunt, fish or visit. Considered western-style humor, these exaggeration postcards were extremely popular …

Trail Rides are a new addition to Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park (SHP) and State Recreational Area (SRA) this year. The rides, provided by Dusty Trails LLC, take visitors through the SRA traveling along the scenic North Platte River. The hour-long rides are a great way to show visitors the beautiful area, some wildlife including deer, turkeys and many bird and plant species. Jason Tonsfeldt, Superintendent of Buffalo Bill Ranch SHP and SRA is pleased with the amount of …

Join me tomorrow morning for a very special edition of The Great Outdoor Radio Show I host when Denise Lewis and friends from Fontenelle Forest’s Raptor Recovery team come with a few live birds to the Waterford Assisted Living facility at Miracle Hills in Omaha. See LIVE raptors of Nebraska! We’ll be highlighting the tremendous conservation work that Fontenelle Forest’s Raptor Recovery does with injured, sick or orphaned raptors as well as the vital role that nongame wildlife such as raptors have in any ecosystem! The …

On a sunny, but muggy, morning last June, six Game and Parks Commission and Northern Prairies Land Trust biologists gathered at Indian Cave State Park. Our mission for the next two days: trek the park’s rugged, wooded hills in search of the elusive yellow lady’s-slipper orchid (Cypripedium parviflorum). A common and widespread North American species, the yellow lady’sslipper grows in coniferous and deciduous forests and wetlands across much of Canada and the U.S. Nebraska, however, supports only a handful of …

A fog rising through the Salt Creek valley led me quietly out the door and down the driveway, past a series of dirt road intersections and directly to the gate of the Little Salt Fork Marsh Preserve near Raymond, just in time to greet the dawn. It was the barbed-wire spun in silk that first made me stop to consider the hidden creatures residing here that revealed a soft touch in sharp contrast to the tamed highway cutting through the creek. As I crossed …