Flora & Fauna

So, your spring wild turkey hunting grounds along river bottoms have been flooded, huh? I am sorry to hear that. The turkeys may or may not return to those river bottom grounds on a consistent basis. More than likely, severely flooded areas probably will be void of birds this season. It might be a good idea to do your homework and plan your route for heading for the hills. But maybe you have never hunted the rolling hills, steep grades and …

Prairie grouse dancing begins in mid-March and will last into May at a prairie near you. Read on for viewing locations. There are some things you just have to see to believe, and others you have to hear. Few provide a treat to both of those senses like watching prairie grouse perform their courtship dances in the spring. Sitting in a blind before first light, you will hear the birds fly into the lek before you can see them. When …

Ryan Sparks devised his own turkey hunting challenge: to fill Nebraska’s three-bird limit with a bow, muzzleloading shotgun and conventional shotgun. Dedicated turkey hunters dream of completing a “grand slam,” or killing a bird from each of the four subspecies of the North American turkey. To complete a grand slam, a hunter might travel from Alabama to Texas to South Dakota to Florida. As a teenager, while enjoying the developing turkey hunting in Nebraska, I dreamed about this turkey hunting …

Here is the second part of my interview with Nebraska Cornhusker head football coach Scott Frost about hunting and a little fishing that aired recently on my Weekly TV Outdoor Report on Omaha’s WOWT 6 News: https://www.wowt.com/content/sports/Hunting-with-Nebraska-Head-Coach-Scott-Frost-Part-Two-507553831.html 

Flooding has truly affected us all in one way or another. Flooding has impacted my own family. Below is video from Friday, March 15, 2019 of flood waters going over the access road from Nebraska Highway 30 to  Timberwood Lake just west of the Fremont Lakes State Recreation Area where my daughter and son-in-law reside. Video courtesy of Wayne Preister of Ames, NE. https://www.facebook.com/greg.wagner.73/videos/10213219160584889/?t=4 My heartfelt thoughts go out to those who must deal with the aftermath of this historic …

I was fortunate recently to get to interview popular Nebraska Cornhusker head football coach Scott Frost at an event about his passion for hunting as part of my my Weekly TV Outdoor Report on Omaha’s WOWT 6 News. Coach Frost rarely grants interviews about himself personally so this was a treat! Click the link below to see Part 1 of the interview: https://www.wowt.com/content/sports/Part-1-Outdoor-Report-with-Coach-Scott-Frost-507113351.html

GERING, Neb. – It’s no prank. The Wildcat Hills Nature Center will present a program about snipe this week. “Snipe: Reality or Legend?” begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 9. Snipe, a wading bird with a long straight bill and mottled brown plumage, is an actual game bird in Nebraska, but many people know it better for its role in a common joke in which people are tricked into hunting a non-existent creature. Amanda Filipi, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission …

Sandhill Cranes Arriving Earlier, Shifting East on Platte Thousands of sandhill cranes will have arrived on the Platte River in central Nebraska by the time you read this. In the weeks to come, there may be 600,000 or more on the river on a given night, with some yet to arrive from their wintering grounds to the south and others having already continued their northward migration. This gathering of more than 80 percent of the mid-continent population of cranes is …

I am shaking my head. It is so hard to believe. This scenario has been among the most surprising and shocking in my career as a conservation professional. More on that in a bit. All of us realize that wildlife-related crimes know no boundaries. Just like poaching game and fish, there are unethical, unscrupulous people, motivated purely by greed, who seek to profit without regard for natural resources, private or public property and ecosystem health. But now, valuable woodland habitat is …

CHADRON, Neb. — Bighorn sheep in the Panhandle are sporting some new hardware this week thanks to the work of a helicopter capture crew, wildlife professionals and volunteers. South Dakota State University joined the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission in capturing and processing a total of 48 sheep Monday and Tuesday — 22 in the Wildcat Hills near McGrew and 26 at three locations in the Pine Ridge near Chadron and Crawford. Wildlife professionals have ramped up monitoring efforts in …