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Jim Gilbert

Columnist | Outdoors Journal

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Outdoors Journal: Fawns arriving

After a gestation period of 196 to 213 days, most fawns are born in late May and into early June.

Updated: May 22, 2009, - 06:58 AM

Outdoor Journal: Walleyes and northerns

Typical lake surface temperatures are in the 50- to 60-degree range for the Minnesota fishing opener, the first big warm-weather outing each year for many people. It's when walleye and northern pike fishing "rules."

Updated: May 07, 2009, - 11:53 PM

Outdoors journal: Baltimore orioles ring in May

It's a good time to put out the orange halves or grape jelly to welcome back the orioles. Mix the jelly half-and-half with water using an eggbeater, then pour into glass jars set out in feeders. The Baltimore oriole, which winters in Central America, is an insect eater but also feeds on wild fruits and might probe flowers for nectar. Orioles have loud, clear voices. The presence of this small bird's cheerful series of whistles and chattering is a sure sign that the month of May is here.

Updated: April 30, 2009, - 08:27 PM

Friday is Arbor Day -- tree appreciation day

The last Friday in April is a day set aside for people to learn about trees and to plant trees in their communities.

Updated: April 23, 2009, - 08:49 PM

Outdoors Journal: Nesting time nears

Nesting sites for the Canada goose, the most numerous of the goose species in North America, usually are chosen in March, and eggs are laid in late March or sometime in April. The nest is most often by water, and preferably on a small island, a muskrat house or beaver lodge. She alone will incubate the usual five or six eggs, although clutch sizes vary from one to 10 eggs. Normally 28 days after the last egg is laid, the young hatch and are ready to leave the nest. During the nesting period, the female will lose 25 to 30 percent of its body weight because of the fasting that incubation imposes.

Updated: April 02, 2009, - 07:07 PM

Outdoors Journal: Wood ducks

The first wood duck migrants are back, and wood ducks will continue to arrive until about the third week of April.

Updated: March 26, 2009, - 09:11 PM

Outdoors Journal: Astronomical spring

This certainly is a transition time. Climatologists and meteorologists here in the Upper Midwest consider winter to be the months of December, January and February.

Updated: March 19, 2009, - 08:07 PM

Outdoors Journal: Tapping the maples

There might still be snow in the forests from Quebec and New England to Ontario, Wisconsin and Minnesota, but cold nights and warm days mean that the sap is running. During the past two or three generations, the art of tapping maple trees and preparing syrup and sugar largely has been forgotten, except by a few who follow this as a trade.

Updated: March 05, 2009, - 08:58 PM

Outdoors Journal: Owls mark start of nesting season

Great horned owls can now be seen on nests. This signals the beginning of the 2009 nesting season since this species is our earliest nesting bird in Minnesota. They nest in forest areas in hollow trees, or old hawk, crow and squirrel nests. No nest is prepared by the owl itself; and the only contribution the owl makes to its home is a few feathers from its body.

Updated: February 12, 2009, - 07:47 PM

Outdoors Journal: First bird migrants returning

In early February we look for horned larks along country roads and in meadows of southern Minnesota, another sign that spring is on the way. This species is one of the first to nest, but, unfortunately many nests with eggs or young in them are destroyed by March and early April snowstorms.

Updated: February 05, 2009, - 07:55 PM