ORLANDO, Fla. — What lures bird-watchers to Lake Apopka is the same thing that brings hunters there.

But one group shoots pictures, while the other shoots ducks.

Both pastimes are legal recreational activities around the state’s fourth-largest lake, a 30,000-acre body of water known worldwide for its crazy abundance of life, offering a ...Read more

HARRISON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Local anglers and bait store owners are forecasting a long ice fishing season ahead with some saying it's the best one they've seen in years, even as the frigid weather has made it too cold for some to go out.

Despite an "up and down" start to this year's ice fishing season for some, specifically for those who fish ...Read more

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — Redfish cruise the shallow waters of Lowcountry marshes feeding on crabs and other marine life, their tails cutting the surface like a shark’s fin. Anglers reel in some 2 million annually. The excitement of “sight fishing” makes them South Carolina’s most popular saltwater sport fish.

But Matt Perkinson, a ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — On the day before Thanksgiving, Cole Wagaman awoke uncertain whether he would hunt ducks. He lives in Kasson, in southern Minnesota, and the wind was whipping snow out of the northwest at 30 miles an hour, with a temperature in the mid-20s.

If he did hunt, he wouldn’t take along his golden retriever, Nellie, he knew that.

Too...Read more

PITTSBURGH — More than a foot of snow has blanketed many areas where local birds look for food.

"So if you have been feeding birds this winter, don't stop when conditions are at their worst," says Kenn Kaufman, a national bird author and artist who visits Pittsburgh regularly.

In the run-up to the Pittsburgh region's biggest snowfall in 16 ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Ron McNamara is no Huck Finn. But McNamara, like Huck, knows something about nighttime travel on the Mississippi River.

“If you think it ain’t dismal and lonesome out in a fog that way by yourself in the night, you try it once — you’ll see," Huck said in Mark Twain’s, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”

McNamara...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Managers of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness say they will extend stricter food storage requirements for visitors, noting the rules have reduced encounters with black bears over the last two years.

The order was set to expire this spring, but now will be enforced for another five years, the U.S. Forest Service announced...Read more

BOSTON — Will Sundays no longer be peaceful days of rest for deer in the Bay State?

State wildlife officials are looking into expanding deer hunting opportunities, as they gather public input on Sunday hunting, crossbow hunting and minimum setback distances for hunting.

Massachusetts is one of only two states with an outright ban on Sunday ...Read more