Words on Birds and Wildlife

By Todd Burras

Winter has passed; spring has arrived.

Not officially of course — that won’t happen for another three weeks — but in reality.

There likely will still be more snow to fall and shovel — maybe even a blizzard or two. Temperatures will rise in and out of the freezing zone, and on occasion we’ll have to drag out the mittens, scarves, heavy coats and boots. But one would have to have been locked inside with the window shades drawn not to have noticed all the spring-like signs emerging outdoors of late.

Earlier this week, there were southerly breezes that left me sweating even in short-sleeves during a long walk around Red Feather Prairie near Saylorville Lake in Polk County. The sound of trickling water as small creeks and streams opened up could be heard while the smell of decomposing leaf litter could be identified in the surrounding woods.

Then there were the birds. Oh, the magnificent sight and sound of scores and scores of different kinds of birds.

In numerous fruit trees in and around Big Creek State Park as well as along Eisenhower Avenue in north Ames near Ada Hayden Heritage Park Lake, there were dozens and dozens of cedar waxwings, one of the most handsome birds ever created. In some of those trees, the waxwings shared both the limbs and the bounty of berries with robins, cardinals and even several bluebirds. Talk about a panopoly of spring-time colors — it doesn’t get much better than that this time of year.

In the woods there were the usual suspects — woodpeckers, juncos, chickadees, nuthatches and doves. In the country there were killdeer, red-winged blackbirds, snow buntings, Lapland larkspurs, American tree sparrows, red-tailed and Cooper’s hawks and even a barred owl on a telephone line. In the trees along the shoreline of the spillway below Saylorville Dam there were mature and immature bald eagles while in the open water there were Canada geese, mallards, a male common merganser (dressed in his finest breeding plumage) and even five American pelicans.

Overhead, azure skies all week have been host to thousands upon thousands of migrating Canada and snow geese chasing the boundaries of the ice line across the Midwest. Trumpeter swans are testing the parameters of open water as well.

During a trip to Colorado last week, my wife, Stephanie, even witnessed hundreds and hundreds of Sandhill cranes flooding into Nebraska near the Platte River from wintering grounds in the Southwest. It seemed a bit early, but there they were, their long bodies and awesome wings drifting over the interstate in small clouds.

Yes, spring is upon us. Get outdoors and absorb this ethereal time.

Todd Burras can be reached at ou****************@gm***.com.

By Todd Burras

 

Unlike most people I seem to talk to these days, I don’t mind winter. I have no objection to bundling up and shoveling snow or chipping ice. I’m not opposed to needing to put on a stocking cap or wool-blended socks before I leave the house. In fact, I rather like the snow and cold temperatures. I say the snowier and colder the better.

It certainly didn’t start out that way. As a child I was never one who looked forward to a day off from school so I could go outside and build a snow fort. I wasn’t exactly thrilled about recess during the winter months, either. King of the Hill wasn’t my idea of fun. Neither were snowball fights or trying to catch a frozen foot- ball that was impossible to grab and often resulted in somebody getting a tooth knocked out or a finger jammed.

My preference back then would have been to stay inside where it was comfortable and reorganize my baseball and football cards for the umpteenth time that week or to watch reruns of “Batman” and “Gilligan’s Island.” In short, I preferred 70s and the sun’s rays to the teens and snowflakes.

I trace the evolution of my fondness for warm weather to cold and my appreciation for Warm Skin rather than sunscreen to our late Siberian husky, Kiana. Huskies, by berth right, are lovers of cold weather. They’re built to pull sleds in the Arctic, and they have the physical and mental constitution to do it with sustained vigor and gusto. It doesn’t hurt that they have built-in insulated coats that can withstand temperatures of 40 to 50 degrees below zero.

But back to Kiana. In her waning years — she lived to be more than 16 years old — we would watch her struggle through uncomfortably warm springs and autumns and fully suffer through hot, muggy summers. For her, the dog days of summer stretched from late March to early December. But when winter would come around and the temperatures finally turned cold and the snow flew, it was like a switch was flipped and the aching and lethargic senior dog would be trans- formed into an energized and rambunctious happy teen.

In a yard full of snow she would run and frolic, plowing snow with her nose and biting at snowflakes. On a walk around the block she would dig her paws into the sidewalk and pull for all she was worth. It was an amazing transformation year after year, particularly in the latter stages of her life.

It was during some of those snowy walks on the coldest of winter nights with Kiana that I, too, began to experience a bit of a transformation of my own. While walks in the spring, summer and fall were always pleasant and enjoyable, winter walks I noticed were downright invigorating. I’d leave the house after a day of work feeling tired, run down and a bit depressed, only to return awake, energized and happy.

In short, I felt alive.

Those final snowy experiences with Kiana prepared me for the past two winters I spent at our cabin in northeastern Minnesota where annual snow totals are measured in feet and temperatures routinely settle below zero, plunging frequently into the negative 20s, 30s and even 40s.

It was often on the coldest and snowiest of winter days that I would find myself on a remote, windswept frozen lake or on a forested trail miles from the nearest road, skiing or snowshoeing, thinking about Kiana, enjoying the surrounding beauty, feeling invigorated and alive in a way that I’ve discovered is only possible in the depths of a cold snowy winter.

I once heard someone say the blessing of winter is that it strips away our constant need and lust for more things and reduces life to the essentials of heat, shelter and food. That may be true, and I’d throw human connections into the mix as well.

I’m happy to once again be back in central Iowa, but I do miss the peace and solitude and simplicity that accompany deep cold.

If it’s going to be winter, it just as well snow … and snow … and snow.

 

Todd Burras can be reached at ou****************@gm***.com.

 

 

 

By Todd Burras

 

My path with Joyce Hornstein first crossed on a sunny spring day some 15 years ago at Richard W. Pohl Memorial Preserve, or more commonly known as Ames High Prairie. A few years earlier I had rebooted the weekly outdoors page for the Tribune, continuing a tradition that had been established and sustained for nearly four decades by Olav Smedal, and there on a verdant plant-covered slope I stood hoping to learn a few things about prairies and, more specifically, prairie plants.

A few years earlier, I had rebooted the weekly out- doors page for the Tribune, continuing a tradition that had been established and sustained for nearly four decades by Olav Smedal, and there on a verdant plant-covered slope I stood hoping to learn a few things about prairies and, more specifically, prairie plants.

I had recently completed a master conservationist class with Story County Conservation where one evening we’d spent an hour or so with Tom Rosburg, a Drake University professor or ecology and botany, who had class participants down on all fours counting the number of different plant species we could identify based solely on the visual differences of the plants we could see.

It was one of those notable moments in my informal education in science that blew my mind. I had absolutely no idea what prairie was or how diverse, complex and important it was in recounting the history of a state in which I had lived my entire life.

It was ironic, if not a bit sobering, that I had grown upon a farm in a state that once was almost entirely Tall Grass Prairie yet I knew nothing about prairies and virtually nothing about any of the state’s other natural resources. State history wasn’t a focus of my formal or informal educational upbringing. Iowa, I grew up believing, was home to soybeans and corn. And, at that time, a few cattle and hogs. Prairies were something only a few young girls read about in Laura Ingalls Wilder novels.

It turns out Joyce Hornstein didn’t read “Little House on the Prairie” novels as a youngster. Rather, she lived a modern-day version of the story. While we both grew up on farms in rural Iowa, our upbringings, in many ways, couldn’t have been much different.

Growing up on a crop and livestock farm along the wooded North Fork of the Maquoketa River in Dubuque County, Joyce and her sisters heard lots of stories from their parents and grandparents about the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression.

This was a generation after the arrival in the state of the Civilian Conservation Corps and the integration of various conservation practices that included building contours on hilly ground, such as the land her parents and while taking botany and land management classes that Joyce’s “mind was opened to prairie before trees.”

A deeper connection and devotion to prairies began to take root and blossom during Joyce’s career at ISU that included working in agronomy and entomology — 19 years of which were for the Extension Service.

During that time, she took a master conservationist class in Polk County and was a founding member of the Iowa Prairie Network. Eventually, she served on the Story County Conservation Board from 2005 through 2014, including chair in both 2008 and 2014, and has volunteered countless hours for both Polk and Story counties, mainly with seed harvest and trail work.

“I just love prairies,” she says. “I’ve always loved plants, and with plants the animals come with it. What could be better?”

Thinking back to that first encounter with Joyce at Pohl Preserve and sub- sequent meetings in the weeks and months that followed, it would be hard to argue with her assertion.

After all, it was with Joyce’s patience and guidance that I was first introduced to plants with imaginative names like blue wild indigo, hoary puccoon, pale spiked lobella, Virginia spiderwort, daisy fleebane, butterfly milkweed and porcupine needle grass, a sample barb of which is still pressed in a field guide I carried during those outings and as sharp as the day it was picked.

In a bit of irony or serendipity, the home Joyce and her husband, Scott, live in outside of Huxley is situated on an oak and hickory savannah, similar to the land she grew up on in northeastern Iowa where she learned the ethics about life and conservation that she lives and imparts to others.

“I think what’s important is we really have to be stewards of the land, air, water and one another,” she says. “I wish more people understood that.”

 

Todd Burras can be reached at ou****************@gm***.com.

 

Name: Joyce Hornstein

Lives: lived in and near Huxley since 1977

Grew up:  along the North Fork of the Maquoketa River in Dubuque County.

Education:  Iowa State University Bachelor of Science degree in botany; ISU Master of Science degree in agronomy

Family: husband, Scott, and two cats

Worked: retired from ISU; worked in agronomy and entomology, including 19 years for ISU Extension

Volunteers: various conservation groups including Story and Polk County Conservation and the Iowa Prairie Network; Ballard Community Performing Arts Association Board

Hobbies:  hiking, bird watching, playing in local community band, reading

Favorite native plant species:  wow, there are so many — prairie clovers, blue flag iris, cardinal flower, oak trees

Favorite public green spaces in Iowa: Hayden Prairie State Preserve, Effigy Mounds National Monument, White Pine Hollow Wildlife Management Area in Dubuque County, Rochester Cemetery in Cedar County

 

 

Olav Smedal Conservation Award

The Olav Smedal Conservation Award is given annually in honor of the late Tribune outdoors editor by the Ames Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America and Story County Conservation. The award goes to an individual or individuals who, by their actions or communications, has or have done the most to accurately present to the public of central Iowa excellence in the conservation of natural resources and outdoor pursuits while representing the highest standards of ethics and sportsmanship.

To nominate someone for the award, contact Mike Meetz at mc******@gm***.com.

 

Olav Smedal Award Recipients

1988 – Dale Brentnall
1989 – Bill Horine
1990 – Steve Lekwa
1991 – Nancy Kurrle
1992 – Cele Burnett
1993 – David Van Waus
1994 – Robert Pinneke
1995 – Jim Pease
1996 – George Patrick
1997 – Ed Powell
1998 – Mike Meetz
1999 – Linda & Hank Zaletel
2000 – Ervin Klaas
2001 – Cindy Hildebrand

2002 – Jim Dinsmore
2003 – Todd Burras
2004 – Jim Colbert
2005 – John Pohlman
2006 – Rick Dietz
2007 – Jimmie Thompson
2008 – Linda & Carl Kurtz
2009 – Gaylan & Lloyd Crim
2010 – Deb Lewis
2011 – Tom Rosburg
2012 – Marlene & Bruce Ehresman
2013 – Kerry “Pat” Schlarbaum
2014 – Mike Todd
2015 – Wolf Oesterreich
2016 – Hank Kohler

 

 

By Todd Burras

 

By noon Sunday, only a half-dozen festive red or blue ice fishing houses hugged the shoreline of the north basin of Ada Hayden Heritage Park Lake. Less than 24 yours earlier, there had been scores of the portable units packed next to each other.

An estimated 400 anglers may have whetted lines at the most recent Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ Urban Trout Program stocking, but there are still plenty of fish to be caught. And prizes to be won.

The DNR tagged five of the roughly 2,200 rainbow trout released at the event, and JAX Outdoors Gear, Hy-Vee and the city of Ames offered prizes for anglers who caught the special fish. Only one tagged trout was caught Saturday, and, as of Thursday, no one else had contacted Andy Long at JAX to report catching one.

“There are some tagged fish still out there waiting to be caught,” said Andy Long, assistant store manager for JAX Outdoor Gear.

As has become customary at these sorts of events, hundreds of anglers were eagerly waiting for the fish truck from the DNR’s hatchery in Manchester to arrive long before it pulled into a packed parking lot around noon. Once the truck was in place with its long tube placed over the open water where a section of ice had been cut, the fish were released and within moments happy children and adults started reeling in their catches.

“People started catching fish within a few minutes, and some even had their limits before I even started fishing,” said Jeff Kopaska, a biometrician for the fisheries bureau of the DNR.

Kopaska said the fish acted a bit differently this year than in previous stockings.

“Usually they spread out more and stay kind of shallow just below the ice,” he said. “This year, they hugged the shoreline pretty tight, so the shacks out away from the shore had little success; we never even saw a trout in my shack. The fish also seemed to go to the bottom and then would swim up to take some bait off a lure.”

The contest for returning tagged fish to JAX will go until 6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 11.

“It was great to see all the kids out there, that is what makes the event a success in my mind,” Long said. “I am sure there will be a lot of people out there fishing as long as the weather permits.”

Anglers who wish to fish for and possess trout must have a 2018 Iowa fishing license and trout stamp.

 

Ice fishing derby this weekend
The Zearing Fire Department and Story County Conservation Board are sponsoring the third-annual Dakins Lake Ice Derby from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday Feb. 10, at the lake on the north edge of Zearing. There will be prizes and contests. The cost is $10 per person, which includes lunch.

The inaugural event in 2016 drew 155 participants and raised more than $2,000 for ice rescue gear for the Zearing Fire Department and the Zearing Emergency Medical Service. Last year’s event drew 260 anglers and raised $5,000 for a new youth baseball field scoreboard in Zearing.
“It was a huge success,” said Dave Skinner, a member of the Zearing Fire Department and one of dozens of volunteers and sponsors who are involved with this year’s derby. “We look forward to a similar turnout or possibly larger this year.”

Skinner said more than 40 sponsors have provided merchandise, cash, gift cards or services to support the ice derby, and more than $2,500 in prizes will be awarded. A couple ways to win at the derby include catching one of dozens of bass, bluegills and crappies that have been tagged and released in the lake or catching the longest overall fish or the longest individual fish in each division of bluegills, bass and crappies.

Visit www.zearingiowa.net for rules and registration forms. On-site registration will start at 6:30 a.m. the day of the event at the lake, which is located at 70613 130th St., just north of Zearing. For more information, contact Dave Skinner at ds******@da*****.com.

 

ISU ice tourney is next weekend

There’s still time to sign up for the Iowa State University Fishing Club’s ice angling tournament Sunday, Feb. 18, at Clear Lake.

The event is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and participants will meet at the McIntosh Woods north boat ramp. Registration is open to everyone, and the cost is $65 per two-man team. Each team can weigh 10 panfish. Registration will start at 7 a.m. on the ice.

For more information, contact Blake Graves at (636) 357–4180 or bd******@ia*****.edu.

 

Todd Burras can be reached at ou****************@gm***.com.

 

By Todd Burras

 

Stepping into the kitchen late one morning earlier this week, I quickly stopped. This was during a weekday and I found myself in an unusual situation at an unusual time. Instead of being at work, I was home during daylight hours and it was at this moment that I nearly came face to face with a red-bellied woodpecker.

My wife, Stephanie, says the bird, with its distinctive red crown, tan breast, and black and white “zebra” markings, is a frequent visitor to the lineup of a half-dozen tube, tray and suet feeders that hang from the soffit just beyond the kitchen windows. It feeds on an assortment of shelled peanuts, hulled sunflower seeds, suet and even dried mealworms we put out for our backyard visitors. On this particular occasion, it was stuffing its crop with sunflower chips before suddenly turning and flying off to a neighbor’s ash tree in an adjoining yard.

I was left leaning over the sink scanning the ground, hedge, pin oak and numerous conifers in our backyard for signs of other birds. Standing in front of the kitchen sink, is, after all, the best place in the house to view the comings and goings of birds in our backyard, and it’s the very spot we’ll likely spend a few hours two weekends from now when we participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count.

The global event will be Friday, Feb. 16 to Monday, Feb. 19, and marks the 21st year that everyone, regardless of their birding acumen, is invited to become a citizen scientist by counting birds they see in their backyards, parks or other areas they choose. The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, the National Audubon Society, with Bird Studies Canada and many international partners organize the study, which helps scientists better define bird ranges, populations, migration pathways and habitat needs.

You can be among the thousands of beginner to expert birdwatchers from around the world who will count birds and add them to a database, thereby creating a snapshot of bird activity across the globe. Last year, more than 214,000 participants submitted their bird observations online, creating the largest instantaneous snapshot of global bird populations ever recorded.

Participants can spend as little as 15 minutes on one day or count for as long as they like each day of the event. For more information or to download a regional checklist, visit www.birdcount.org. Participants can also pick up a checklist and get information by calling the Wild Birds Unlimited Nature Store in Ames at (515) 956-3145 or stopping at the store at 213 Duff Ave. Wild Birds Unlimited is a major sponsor of the count.

It’s time to get ready to get counting.

 

• ••

 

It got cold again just in time.

For ice anglers that is.

A week after a warming trend made conditions along the shore of the north basin of Ada Hayden Heritage Park Lake unsafe for ice anglers, cold temperatures returned and refroze the edges. The result is the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ trout stocking of the lake will take place at noon Saturday, Feb. 3, as previously planned.

The DNR plans to release around 2,100 hatchery-raised rainbow trout as part of the DNR’s Urban Trout Program.

“We have around 11.5 inches of ice out around the canoe launch,” Ben Dodd, a fisheries biologist for the DNR said earlier this week. “We should have at least a foot of ice by Saturday.”

To fish for trout at Ada Hayden, anglers need a valid 2018 fishing license and a trout stamp. The daily limit is five trout per licensed angler with a possession limit of 10. Children age 15 or younger can fish for trout with a properly licensed adult, but they must limit their catch to one daily limit. The child can purchase a trout fee, which will allow them to catch their own limit.

Dodd said the DNR plans to tag a few fish that if caught will provide the lucky anglers with prizes from JAX Outdoor Gear.

 

Todd Burras can be reached at ou****************@gm***.com.

2017 Top 10 most frequently reported species:

While a global event, the majority of checklists submitted to the Great Backyard Bird Count site are from counters in North America, Here’s a list of the most frequently reported species during the 2017 count based on the number checklists on which each appeared:

1. Northern Cardinal
2. American Crow
3. Mourning Dove”
4. Dark-eyed Junco
5. Downy Woodpecker
6. Blue Jay
7. Black-capped Chickadee
8. House Finch
9. House Sparrow
10. White-breasted Nuthatch

Source: Great Backyard Bird Count

 

By Todd Burras

 

Interested in establishing a pollinator garden in your yard but don’t know where to start?

Let some Ames High students be your guides.

Dozens of biology students at Ames High who are involved with community-based Environmental Impact Projects and many others who are members of the Ames High Garden Club are working with professionals to design pollinator gardens this spring for Ames residents who sign up online.

Ames High science teacher Mike Todd said the students are collaborating with design professionals and native plant experts to help residents establish and maintain the gardens, which are free.

Many of the students involved will be working at this weekend’s Iowa Prairie Network Winter Seminar Saturday, Jan. 27, at Ames High School, 1921 Ames High Drive. The free event is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and a slate of guest speakers, including Carl Kurtz, John Pearson, Lee Burras, Loren Lown and Mike Todd, will present workshops covering a wide variety of topics related to prairies.

To learn more about the seminar and the pollinator garden project, Todd provided answers to a few questions.

• What’s the importance of Ames High Prairie to the network and to the mission of the Iowa Prairie Network?

The IPN works to preserve our natural heritage. The IPN Winter Seminar helps to educate and inspire people to get involved with these efforts, so its nice to have the Ames High Prairie on site for the seminar. Two years ago there was a winter hike in the morning to help people understand what happens to prairies and the plants in winter. Many people involved with the IPN have done work at the Ames High Prairie and they have been excited for us to host the annual event.

• How are Ames High students involved with this event?

Ames High students are involved in the planning, promoting and organizing of the IPN Winter Seminar. A group attended the planning meeting, created a promotional card and over 100 students will help out with all aspects of the event on Saturday including presenting during one of the sessions.

• Does the seeming rise of awareness in the public conscience of the importance of pollinators translate into an increasing interest/awareness of the importance of prairie?

I’m not sure, but it does allow our students an opportunity to educate the public about how to positively impact pollinators in our community through the incorporation of native plants that are host plants for 90 percent of insects.

• In a nutshell what does the pollinator garden include that students are offering to help residents create?

Our students will be once again growing 10,000 native plants in our greenhouse and working with professionals to design and plant around 75 pollinator gardens throughout Ames. The pollinator gardens are around 30 square feet — some larger, some smaller — and contain all Iowa native plants. The public signs up on our link, then later this winter and spring a student group will contact them to set up a meeting at the site they would like a pollinator garden planted. The students collect information about the site — shade, moisture, soil sample, etc., — and the client’s preferences.

They also will be educating their clients about native plants and what to expect from the garden over the next three years.  Then the students work with design professionals and native plant experts to develop an initial design plan. They have another meeting with their client to get their feedback about the design and do some more education about the maintenance of the garden. Then the students finalize the design.

In April and May, the students prepare the site for planting, educate the client about Iowa One Call, etc. Then in the middle of May, the students plant the pollinator garden. Next year’s students will likely visit to get feedback about the first growing season and possibly again in future years.

For more information, contact Mike Todd at mi*******@am**.us.

 

Todd Burras can be reached at ou****************@gm***.com.

Free pollinator gardens

If Ames residents are interested in learning more about working with Ames High students in creating a pollinator garden, they can attend the Iowa Prairie Network Winter Seminar this weekend and/or sign up to get a free pollinator garden using the following link: https://goo.gl/mkN36S.

 

 

 

 

By Todd Burras

 

The big bluestem, compass plants, oxeye daisies and butterfly bushes may be buried under the snow, but a prairie in full bloom will be on the minds of attendees at the annual Iowa Prairie Network seminar Saturday, Jan. 27, at Ames High School, 1921 Ames High Drive.

The event is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and a slate of guest speakers, including Carl Kurtz, John Pearson, Lee Burras, Loren Lown and Mike Todd, will present workshops covering the following topics: a Smartphone app for identification and inventory of prairie plants; understanding prairies and native plants; evaluating pollinator habitat; building soil with prairie; and invasive species control.

The event is free and open to the public, and there will be a silent auction that will provide funds to help manage a local prairie remnant that is in need of help.

For more information, contact Mike Todd at mi*******@am**.us.

Take a winter hike

If the cold weather in the first half of January kept you locked inside and afraid to go outside, maybe this weekend’s weather will warm you to the idea of getting outside for a walk or a hike.

The Outdoor Alliance of Story County has a schedule of three more winter hikes that are free and open to the public. All three hikes start at 1:30 p.m. on Thursdays. Here’s the remaining schedule for this winter:

• Jan. 25 – Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation’s Jordan Wildlife Area at 56091 265th St., south of Ames. To get there, take South Duff Avenue south out of Ames and then turn east on 265th Street and travel 1.75 miles. All hikes end with a winter “picnic” of a light array of whatever the hikers brought to share.
• Feb. 1 — Story County’s Heart of Iowa Trail. The trailhead is at the Cambridge City Park, Water and Third Streets (under the water tower). If you want a ride, meet others at 12:50 p.m. for departure from the old Kmart store on South Duff Avenue and South 16th Street. Meet in the southeast corner of the parking area.
• Feb. 8 — Story County Conservation’s Sleepy Hollow Access Sleepy Hollow, 646 W. Riverside Road, just north of Ames off U.S. Highway 69 near Ada Hayden Heritage Park. Meet at the parking lot on the southwest side of the bridge over the South Skunk River.

For more information, contact Greg Vitale at (732) 328-0643 or visit www.oasco.org.

Iowans on Everest

Andy Anderson, a Boone native, will present a program about his successful summit of Mount Everest at 7 pm. Tuesday, Feb. 6, at the CPMI Event Center, at 2321 N Loop Drive, off Airport Road in Ames.

In May 2017, Anderson and his cousin John completed their 52-day trek and became the first Iowans to summit the mountain via the lesser-climbed northeast ridge in China.

Anderson will show a slide presentation and discuss all aspects of his historic ascent: his progression as a climber starting out in central Iowa; the physical and mental challenges he faced on Everest; and the life lessons he learned along the way.

For those unable to attend, the event will be live-streamed on JAX Outdoor Gear’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/JAXAmes.

Whitetail harvest up

The number of deer killed by hunters during Iowa’s 2017-18 whitetail season increased by nearly 4 percent over 2016-17, according to data released by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources earlier this week.

The DNR says hunters reported killing 105,544 deer, an increase of 4,100 deer from the previous year. Most deer were harvested during the shotgun seasons, including 26,546 during the first season and 19,921 in the second season.

Bow hunters killed 19,797 whitetails while landowners and tenants reported harvesting 7,376 antlerless deer and 3,785 antlered deer during the shotgun seasons and 1,445 antlerless deer and 1,246 antlered deer during the bow season.

Iowa’s deer seasons closed on Jan. 10.

Ice fishing derby, tourney
The Zearing Fire Department and Story County Conservation Board are sponsoring the third-annual Dakins Lake Ice Derby from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday Feb. 10, at the lake on the north edge of Zearing. There will be prizes and contests. The cost is $10 per person, which includes lunch. Visit www.zearingiowa.net for rules and registration forms. Registration will start at 6:30 a.m. the day of the event. For more information, contact Dave Skinner at ds******@da*****.com.

The Iowa State University Fishing Club will host a tournament from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, at Clear Lake. Participants will meet at the McIntosh Woods north boat ramp. Registration is open to everyone, and the cost is $65 per two-man team. Each team can weigh 10 panfish. Registration will start at 7 a.m. on the ice. For more information, contact Blake Graves at (636) 357–4180 or bd******@ia*****.edu.

 

Todd Burras can be reached at ou****************@gm***.com.

 

 

By Todd Burras

 

CHISHOLM, MINN. – What does one do to christen a new year when it’s 15 degrees below zero and the ground is covered with 6 inches of snow?

If you’re Bill Tefft and Susan Meisner, you get up early and drive mile after mile in town and the country, stopping frequently and getting out occasionally to take a better look or tromp through the snow in search of a silhouette that vanished into the woods.

It may have been New Year’s Day but this outing was part of the National Audubon Society’s annual Christmas Bird Count.

Here’s how it works.

Each year between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5, participants are organized into groups that count birds within 15-mile diameter circles in specific areas all across North America and other parts of the world. In some counts, birdwatchers only count the number of different species they see. However, with the CBC, they record individual birds, as well.

Initially organized in 1900 as an alternative to the old “side hunt” — in which teams of Christmas revelers would gather and compete to see which team could shoot the largest number of birds and other animals — a couple dozen people in several northeastern states took notebooks and went out to several sites to count birds.

Nearly 120 years later, the CBC has become the largest and longest-running citizen science survey in the world with tens of thousands of people counting millions of birds during the three-week period. The findings are added to a massive database that helps professional researchers document and analyze changes in bird populations. When combined with breeding bird surveys, the CBC data provide, among other insights, an early warning as to when a species begins to decline.

“By conducting Christmas Bird Counts we explore and learn about the habits of our winter birds, and how they’re faring,” said Tefft, a naturalist who retired a few years ago from a teaching career at Vermilion Community College in Ely.

On this particular count, one of five or six Tefft was participating in this year, he and Meisner started early in the morning in Hibbing, Minn., before moving onto Chisholm, a neighboring city. It’s there where I met up with them, grabbing a spot in the backseat and slouching down in order to gain a better view.

We started out driving up and down side streets, looking for birdfeeders or habitat, such as crabapple trees, that might draw birds. Slowly our list grew both in number of species identified as well as in the number of birds we counted. All were birds one would expect to see in that part of the world in winter: black-capped chickadees, red-breasted and white-breasted nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, pileated woodpeckers, blue jays, common redpolls, pine grosbeaks, European starlings, rock pigeons, American crows and common ravens.

It wasn’t until after a couple hours passed as we worked our way into the country and the edge of the circle, in which we were counting, that things got a little more interesting. After spotting a ruffed grouse hunkered in a copse of a jackpine forest edge and adding it to the list, Bill stopped the vehicle and got out. He wanted to try to lure in a grey jay to add to our findings and began hooting like a barred owl, a tactic that sometimes attracts curious birds.

Bill’s convincing mimic would have fooled me but it didn’t any of the birds. We got back in the car, drove a ways and tried again. It was on the third try that Bill caught a glimpse of a bird dipping and diving across the road and disappearing into the woods.

“And, by the shape of it, I’m thinking it might be a black-backed woodpecker,” he said. “It’s certainly the perfect habitat for them.”

Bill whipped out his cell phone and within seconds was playing a sound recording of a black-backed woodpecker.

The three of us strained to listen, and then Susan and I both looked at one another.

“Over there,” she said.

With that, Susan plunged into the ditch and started in pursuit.

“I guess we’re going in,” Bill said, and we both dove into the ditch, pausing a couple times to replay the sound recording and track the bird’s location.

As we advanced through the forest, the volume of the woodpecker’s “chek, chek, chek” increased.

“Look for falling snow off the branches,” Susan said.

Sure enough, a moment later, with snow falling off a limb, I noticed a dark shape moving around the trunk of a craggy jackpine.

“A female black-backed woodpecker,” Bill said. “And not a three-toed woodpecker, which is similar.”

We celebrated the “uncommon find” as we continued the count and did once again after spotting a barred owl perched high in a white pine. In all, the daily count reached 18 species. A good number for the area, Bill assured us.

But the count to the three of us was more than just about spending time looking for birds, something we all deeply enjoyed.

“It’s also fun for me because I participate in a number of these counts in the area each winter so I end up meeting and talking to people that I normally wouldn’t have the opportunity to spend an entire day with,” Bill said.

Whether you’re driving around an old mining town on the Iron Range in northern Minnesota or hiking the canyons and ridges at Ledges State Park in central Iowa, there’s bound to be a Christmas Bird Count in your area. Next winter, you might want to take part in one. I certainly plan to.

 

Todd Burras can be reached at ou****************@gm***.com.

 

 

By Todd Burras

 

The recent deep-freeze temperatures have surely been welcomed by at least one group of Mid-Iowans: ice anglers.

Two weeks of cold weather have been ideal for making ice on local bodies of water, including Ada Hayden Heritage Park Lake in Ames, where the Iowa Department of Natural Resources recently announced it will again restock trout this winter.

The DNR plans to release around 2,100 hatchery-raised rainbow trout at noon Saturday, Feb. 3, at the north end of the lake in Ames. The event is part of the DNR’s Urban Trout Program.

“Obviously this is pending good ice conditions,” said Ben Dodd, a DNR fisheries biologist.

Dodd said that as of mid-week the lake had between 6 and 7 inches of ice on it.

“I’ve got my fingers crossed that ice-building conditions continue,” he said.

The annual winter event has become a hit with local anglers. Dodd said if conditions are right, he expects between 300 and 400 people to show up to fish the day of the release.

To add a little incentive and fun, Dodd said the DNR plans to tag a few fish that if caught will provide the lucky anglers with prizes from JAX Outdoor Gear.

To fish for trout at Ada Hayden, anglers need a valid 2018 fishing license and a trout stamp. The daily limit is five trout per licensed angler with a possession limit of 10. Children age 15 or younger can fish for trout with a properly licensed adult, but they must limit their catch to one daily limit. The child can purchase a trout fee, which will allow them to catch their own limit.

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Todd Burras can be reached at ou****************@gm***.com.

 

By Todd Burras

 

Traditions are some of the many fun things about the winter holidays. Our family for many years has made it a priority to get out on the afternoon of Christmas Day to go for a hike, ski or snowshoe. We take hot chocolate and a bag of birdseed, leaving some along the way for birds, squirrels and any other creatures that might come along.

It’s part of an old Scandinavian tradition of feeding the birds on Christmas morning as a way of ensuring good luck in the coming New Year. Some people sprinkle a little seed on the front step while others leave it in little piles in the woods. We do both.

Late in the afternoon this past Monday the four of us bundled up and drove out to McFarland Park with a friend, who also happens to be Norwegian (don’t we all need any extra luck we can possibly muster in the coming year?). It was fun to stroll around the lake and scatter a little seed as we went, even if the woods were relatively quiet and the cold air made our faces turn numb.

The real highlight (besides the hot chocolate after the hike), however, took place before we even got to the park when we saw a flock of at least 10 turkeys mingling with three or four deer while feeding in a ditch less than a fourth of a mile from the McFarland parking lot.

A half century ago or so it would have been a rare occasion for an Iowan to see either a white-tailed deer or an Eastern turkey. Now, though, thanks to the efforts of state biologists, conservation organizations, hunters and many landowners and other residents who care about providing habitat for wildlife, both species are flourishing, as are some other native creatures that have made strong comebacks in recent years, including trumpeter swans, peregrine falcons, ospreys, otters and bobcats, among others.

Even barn owls, which landed on Iowa’s endangered species list in 1977 due to their declining numbers, are showing signs of recovery. Cold weather and a loss of grasslands habitat likely led to the species’ population crash that by 1980 resulted in biologists being able to locate only one barn owl nest in the entire state.
But this year staff for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources found 38 nests in 26 counties, marking the fourth consecutive year they’ve increased their nesting numbers in the state, according to Bruce Ehresman, a wildlife diversity bird biologist for the DNR. Of the 38 nests counted, 26 active nests produced 71 barn owls that fledged.

Ehresman attributes the increase in barn owl numbers to milder winter temperatures statewide, grassland conservation programs and an increase in the number of barn owl nesting boxes mounted on poles that the DNR has strategically placed around the state. If the trend continues, Ehresman is optimistic barn owls could eventually be upgraded from endangered to threatened on the state species list.

It takes more than tradition and a little luck to help wildlife populations recover. Vision, teamwork, money and a ton of hard work are what’s needed and required. As we take time during the holidays to relax, reflect and refuel, let’s all re-commit to building on old traditions and starting new ones in the areas of conservation, outdoors recreation, natural resource management and personal wellness that comes from spending time with others in nature.

Happy New Year.

 

Todd Burras can be reached at ou****************@gm***.com.