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Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Tick season in Minnesota in full force, with unwelcome new visitor

Sports / Outdoors /

An unpopular season is in full swing in Minnesota, now through early July, and with a returning champion. "It's here," said the Department of Health epidemiologist Elizabeth Schiffman.

Blacklegged ticks are expanding

Blacklegged ticks, aka deer ticks, transmit Lyme disease and are a high risk beginning this part of May. Both nymphs (the size ...Read more

How a National Aviary researcher's 5-year slog proved ivory-billed woodpeckers aren't extinct

Sports / Outdoors /

Clad in thigh-high snake protector chaps and muddy boots, the National Aviary’s Steven Latta has mucked around in a Louisiana river swamp from October to April for the last five years.

Latta and other researchers tramp through water, mud and dry ground for two hours most days to reach the “hot zone,” an unnamed bottomland that they ...Read more

Best times for anglers

Sports / Outdoors /

(Table for May 28-June 11)

This table lists top fishing times and days for the coming weeks. For best results, begin fishing one hour before and continue one hour after the times given. Times apply to all time zones.

———

Sunday.…..................7:05 p.m....………………….……........................................7:25 a.m....Read more

EZEQUIEL BECERRA/Getty Images North America/TNS

'Old Gruesome' wandered beyond her normal Florida Keys home. The crocodile was moved back.

Sports / Outdoors /

"Old Gruesome,” as residents of a Florida Keys neighborhood affectionately call an American crocodile who’s lived in their canal for years, decided to explore the area outside her normal environs earlier this month.

The large croc usually hangs out in the canals of the Venetian Shores neighborhood next to the Coast Guard station in ...Read more

Brian Peterson, Star Tribune/Star Tribune/Brian Peterson, Star Tribune

Minnesota legislature passes jumbo outdoors bill with 'transformational' money

Sports / Outdoors /

If you care about fishing, final legislation heading to the desk of Gov. Tim Walz might be considered a record catch.

Bundled in a stringer full of policy changes and millions of new dollars benefitting outdoor recreation, a multifaceted bill approved by the House and Senate broke a yearslong stalemate at the Capitol on issues important to ...Read more

Christy Hader/Dreamstime/TNS

Could prescribed fires offer the best protection for Washington's lynx?

Sports / Outdoors /

WINTHROP, Wash. — On a subfreezing morning in March, Carmen Vanbianchi is crouched in the snow, cramming chunks of roadkill deer into a pouch she calls her meat purse.

She wrenches the zipper closed, then lines up a half-dozen tiny bottles of scent lures — pungent concoctions laced with urine, glandular extracts and mystery ingredients ...Read more

Dennis Anderson/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS

Dennis Anderson: On yet another opener, Upper Red Lake produces walleyes, and more walleyes

Sports / Outdoors /

UPPER RED LAKE, Minn. – This lake has a fish-producing reputation to uphold on opening day, and it didn't disappoint Saturday, as thousands of anglers from Minnesota and beyond reaped its bountiful walleyes on a summer-like day that featured patchy blue skies and a high temperature that topped 75 degrees.

As has been the case in recent years,...Read more

David McNew/Getty Images North America/TNS

The world's largest animal is headed to San Diego

Sports / Outdoors /

Blue whales will migrate up the West Coast this summer, giving San Diegans the chance to see these massive and graceful animals in local waters.

Known as the largest animals in the world, blue whales are members of the baleen whale family. Instead of teeth, they have bristly keratin plates called baleen in their mouths that filter their food ...Read more

Tom Gralish/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

Millions of birds will fly over Western Pennsylvania the next 2 weeks

Sports / Outdoors /

About 2.1 million birds are expected to fly over Pennsylvania on Monday night while millions more are expected to arrive in Allegheny and surrounding counties in the next couple of weeks, according to Cornell’s BirdCast.

The floodgates are open.

The long string of unseasonably cold days in April delayed migration by a couple of weeks, ...Read more

Best times for anglers

Sports / Outdoors /

(Table for May 21-June 4)

This table lists top fishing times and days for the coming weeks. For best results, begin fishing one hour before and continue one hour after the times given. Times apply to all time zones.

———

Sunday…………............1:30 p.m........………....................................................2:00 a.m.

...Read more

Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News/TNS

Moose wanders into Alaska movie theater and leaves with a Happy Meal

Sports / Outdoors /

Employees at a movie theater in Kenai, Alaska, got a big surprise last month when a curious moose strolled into the lobby and rooted through the trash, then left after a few minutes with a McDonald's Happy Meal box stuck to its snout.

The visit was captured on social media in a TikTok video and Facebook post that showed what appeared to be a ...Read more

John Myers/Duluth News Tribune/TNS

Dennis Anderson: Ice-out for walleye opener? Local anglers offer updates.

Sports / Outdoors /

If you're planning to paddle in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on opening day of the Minnesota inland walleye and northern pike seasons May 13, it's possible you'll encounter some ice on some lakes.

Key for visitors to BWCA lakes and other waters across northern Minnesota on the seasons' first days will be the weather between now and...Read more

Stuart Patterson/Dreamstime/TNS

Bass season opens in June, but some of the best fishing occurs before the season

Sports / Outdoors /

On feral farmland near Slippery Rock and Sarver, two private lakes quietly hold bass genetically linked to ancestors that were likely stocked there generations ago.

In the spring, when the Pennsylvania trout crowd is everywhere and bass anglers are waiting out the state's two-month harvest ban, Lee Kann of Monroeville has the ponds to himself. ...Read more

Best times for anglers

Sports / Outdoors /

(Table for May 14-May 28)

This table lists top fishing times and days for the coming weeks. For best results, begin fishing one hour before and continue one hour after the times given. Times apply to all time zones.

———

Sunday………..............7:45 a.m...…………………..............................................8:10 p.m.

...Read more

Joe Amon/The Denver Post/TNS

Hunting, conservation groups back cuts in big-game licenses to help herds recover

Sports / Outdoors /

A coalition of hunters, wildlife advocates and conservationists supports substantial cuts in the number of big-game hunting licenses proposed for northwest Colorado and believes even deeper reductions might be needed to help herds recover from the region’s severe winter.

Reductions of more than 60% in licenses for some species in certain ...Read more

Best times for anglers

Sports / Outdoors /

(Table for May 7-May 21)

This table lists top fishing times and days for the coming weeks. For best results, begin fishing one hour before and continue one hour after the times given. Times apply to all time zones.

———

Sunday.…..................1:05 a.m....………………….…….......................................1:35 p.m.

...Read more

JOSEPH PREZIOSO/Getty Images North America/TNS

Massive great white shark a sign population 'booming' off Hilton Head, fisherman says

Sports / Outdoors /

The water off Hilton Head was eerily quiet on Monday before charter captain Chip Michalove saw “a giant” under his boat. He had hooked a 14 1/2-foot female great white shark weighing an estimated 2,400 pounds.

“I don’t think you can jump out of an airplane and get the same adrenaline as catching a shark,” he said Wednesday afternoon. ...Read more

CHARLES BJORGEN/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS

Dennis Anderson: Ex-governor turned water protector warns Minnesotans of risks

Sports / Outdoors /

Arne Carlson was Minnesota governor from 1991 to 1999. Previously, he served on the Minneapolis City Council, was a member of the Minnesota House and was state auditor. Considered a moderate Republican, Carlson's hallmark conservation initiative while governor attempted to clean up the Minnesota River.

In the interview below, Carlson, 88, ...Read more

Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images North America/TNS

'Free Solo' directors discuss 'Wild Life' doc

Sports / Outdoors /

As one of National Geographic’s biggest film releases of 2023, the documentary “Wild Life” soars on splendid imagery of South America’s rugged Andean Mountain Range, vast and arid plains, and stark, endless skies.

But as with the Oscar-winning documentary “Free Solo” — also directed by veteran filmmakers Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy ...Read more

Mark Rightmire/The Orange County Register/TNS

Outdoor recreation boosts physical and psychological growth in kids

Sports / Outdoors /

Playtime isn't just about playing. It is the way mammals discover and develop innate skills.

With green sprouts emerging and spring weather taking hold, now is a good time for parents and caregivers to encourage children to take a major interest in outdoor recreation.

Fortunately, the Pittsburgh region has lots of organized outdoor activities ...Read more