Iowa's Waterfowl Opening Dates

A week ago I saw a Goose/Duck hunter attaching some prairie grass camouflage on the side of his boat in preparation for opening day...I was thinking"YES, not that far away from my seasons now!" In doing a little research here on Waterfowl Hunting - My what I am finding! Not usually a focus of mine since I elect to stick to the home property. Classifications are in order here when it comes to season dates,zones and limits in the state. Following I have included a link to specific information of interest to steer those resident and non-resident hunters to the right water hole ; ) - http://www.iowadnr.com/law/files/07waterfowlregs.pdf There is a marsh located to the north of us. It won't be much use this year for waterfowl hunting. It used to be a wake up call when the guns started going off on the opening day of the seasons. The IDNR decided to drain it to remove some big bottom feeding fish so the vegetation would have a chance to re-establish. So far they haven't closed the dam yet to fill the pool. They believe it will improve the food source for our migratory birds to remove the fish. However, the Pelicans have used it as a stop in their migrations ever since we have lived in the area. Probably because of what had been an abundant source of fish. Time will prove or disprove the kind of habitat most accepted by the species traveling through to the north/south. Best be getting the camera out here to start catching all the "V's" overhead...

Flight of the Monarchs

The Monarch butterfly, a member of the Endangered Species List, has once again begun its semi-annual migration. My first sighting of the orange and black beauties this May 9th, but their northern trek started from central Mexico the second week of March. It seems that the longer day light hours in the spring trigger the butterfly to get the yearly cycle going. In turn the same goes in the Fall when the daylight hours get shorter - means it's time to head south for warmer climates from the border of Canada. There seems to be three separate populations of Monarchs. One that lives on the west side of the Rockies and winters in California, then those on the east side of the Rockies that migrate to central Mexico ,with the third group along the eastern seaboard finding winter quarters in Florida. One of the reasons our decision to buy our timber property was the time of year we first started looking at it. The Monarchs were hanging in bunches on the tips of the oak tree branches, we discovered that it is one of the favorite perches for resting butterflies. September 8 - 20th is the time Iowa usually sees winged wonders pass through. However, as we sat down to enjoy a community picnic on Labor Day several miles to the west the Sycamore tree tips were alive with movement. Monarchs jockeying for their own space to rest before they embarked on their next leg of the journey...