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OK. So the Iowa Natural Resources Commission has voted to open Iowa’s first mourning dove hunting season since 1918. Now comes the REAL challenge! After decades of rancorous, divisive debate, it’s time for people on both sides of the issue to finally demonstrate how much we love the doves we’ve been arguing about. Can we […]

Blogger’s note: Sorry for this gloomy posting when we all should be out enjoying spring flowers and birds. But far too many Iowans have had that experience marred by the smell of CAFOs. Science Says CAFOs Pollute In their attempts to defend industrial livestock operations, spokespersons for the Iowa Farm Bureau and others often ignore

In between . . . The calendar says it’s officially still winter. But red-winged blackbirds and robins have returned to the Turkey River valley. Chickadees and cardinals and tufted titmice are whistling their spring love songs. Some bald eagles are sitting on eggs. (Check out this amazing live nest camera!) http://www.raptorresource.org/falcon_cams/ Ice chunks lay stranded

Be it luck, fate, or cowardice, we savored the warmth and sun of Florida during the late January/early February wintery mix that pounded Iowa and much of the rest of the country. While our driveway was filling up with a foot of snow, we were visiting Key West, the southernmost point on the continental      U.

Humans think WE have it tough! It took an hour to blade out the driveway after the last big snow. I couldn’t make it to town for a loaf of bread because the roads were icy. Another evening meeting got cancelled due to weather. Our firewood supply is dwindling because of the cold snap. The

OK, I admit it. With the deer hunting season behind us, I felt a twinge of guilt for killing the animals that we so delight in watching and photographing the rest of the year. But then, as we enjoy venison roast, or stew, or lasagna, or loin, I rationalize that humans also are a part

Thinking of winter? Our turkey vultures have gone south. Wooly bears have been scurrying across the highway for several weeks. Rust-colored leaves still cling to the oaks, but most other trees have shed their foliage. The juncos arrived from the north a month ago. A purple finch stopped briefly at our feeder. All these signs

Ignore him and maybe he’ll go away? We hope not! When David Kirby wrote “Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment,” we might have expected knee-jerk howls of protest from proponents of industrial agriculture. But supporters of the meat, milk, and egg factories he lambasted

Dog days? Not if you’re a 5-year-old! Like a welcome cold front clearing out the Iowa heat and humidity, a young person’s sense of wonder and amazement can bring a new perspective to what may have seemed like too much summer. A recent visit from my 5-year-old grandson Derek reminded me, literally, to stop and

After a couple of weeks of hot, muggy, wet weather that made a hike in the woods less than inviting, I finally overcame the summer doldrums and headed down the hill to the forest edge. What a treat! Poking up through the greenery, clusters of shiny, dark-purple raspberries told me that my timing was perfect.