There are green shoots of grass growing in the front yard of my Omaha lawn. The sandhill crane migration is nearing its peak in Nebraska’s central Platte River valley. Wild turkeys are entering their breeding phase on our family farm in southeast Nebraska. Oh, and what about the fish that swim where I fish? Hmmm … Are they biting? Spring. It may or may not be here on the calendar just yet, but the time for early spring fishing has …

Nebraska’s popular archery spring wild turkey hunting season is just around the corner It opens on March 25. And, seemingly a growing number of hunters (like myself) have added another piece of legal archery equipment to their repertoire — the modern crossbow. The increasing popularity of crossbows for hunting and harvesting game is even showing up in Game and Parks surveys. Some folks will be quick to let you know that a crossbow or arbalest is a firearm. That is …

*Blogger’s Note: Since I am receiving a lot of requests for corned meat recipes and because Saint Patrick’s Day is just around the bend, I am bringing back my blog about corning beef and wild game. I hope you find it informative and have the time to try one of these delicious recipes. I raise my glass to you and exclaim: “Sláinte!” (slawn-cha), which is an Irish Gaelic term meaning “health.” Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! GW. Saint Patrick’s Day is one …

As a conservation professional, I get sick and tired of people calling snow and Ross’s geese nasty nicknames and saying that they are downright unfit to eat. Look, they are not “sky carp,” “lutefisk with feathers,” “an over-cooked catcher’s mitt,” “rats with white feathers,” or “trash birds.” No, not by a long shot!  Your blogger displays snow geese harvested during a recent Light Goose Conservation Order hunt in south-central Nebraska. Photo courtesy of Greg Wagner/Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. They …

I am sharing some broadcast news related to Nebraska’s outdoor scene with you this week. Regarding my weekly television appearance about outdoors-related activities and destinations, that can now be seen on Omaha’s ABC news affiliate KETV NewsWatch 7 and www.KETV.com between 8 and 8:30 a.m. on Saturday mornings with popular  TV anchor/host, John Oakey. Called the “Great Outdoors,” this segment represents a fresh, new visual approach to letting you know about various outdoor news items and features around the Omaha-metro …

A wildlife biologist I knew used tell me that to be an effective shed deer antler hunter, you must know white-tailed deer biology and “think like a buck.” I get the biology part, but “think like a buck? Hmmm … Luke Meduna who’s the Big Game Program Manager for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, responds to that shed antler hunting strategy by saying: “Yes, to be successful, a shed deer antler hunter needs to think like a buck, but …

I sure enjoy ice fishing but admittedly I don’t do much of it. I don’t quite have all the equipment needed for it. Nevertheless, when there’s an invitation to go with seasoned veterans of the ice fishing lifestyle, you can bet that I will jump at the opportunity. Such was the case when Ty Stromquist of Norfolk, NE and his dad, Alan Stromquist of Oakland, NE invited me to ice fish with them on a farm pond in northeast Nebraska …

The stuff one witnesses in the great outdoors never ceases to amaze. As of late, enter the story of the “rope buck.” During Nebraska’s 2019 muzzleloader deer hunting season in December, the neighboring landowner who lives to the south of our farm was in his stand watching for white-tailed deer. A buck emerged at a distance, he closely examined it with binoculars. It was a nice-sized white-tailed buck, but something was very odd about its antlers. As the buck moved …

The late deer hunting season is over in Nebraska and now it is time for me to unravel a mystery in the woods of the family farm where I hunt. What in the blazes are those rocks littered about the woodland habitat? I have never seen anything like this scenario. There are many rocks scattered about the lower half of a relatively steep, hilly west/northwest slope in the Schramm Bluffs of Sarpy County near the Platte River in southeast Nebraska. …

“Ice fishing is an experience you can’t live from the couch,” Kyle Kovnesky, hardcore ice fisherman from Abrams, WI. Why do normally stable people go out in extremely cold weather to venture onto a frozen snow and windswept body of water to freeze their tails off and stare down through a hole in the ice to catch a fish? Think about the scenario in that question. It would seem that this is not a logical or sane thing to do. Or, …