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Outdoors

Hunting weary ducks

Duck hunting is as much about luck as it is skill. Luck is what determines favorable weather patterns, makes you look in the right direction just in time to see the next flight approach, and makes you get up and hunt that one day a trophy pintail is flying. But that doesn’t mean that luck alone will put ducks on the ground. When ducks have been hunted and survived, their luck has allowed their skill to increase, so you need to change the game to get the advantage. The longer the season goes, the more ducks learn. They have been shot at and survived, and each time a shell was fired, ...

Montoursville freshman Aguirre completes 50-mile ultramarathon

Entering high school can give kids a number of different goals to accomplish. Be at the top of the class in grades, join multiple after-school clubs, make the starting lineup in a varsity sport. That and much more. But for Montoursville freshman Regan Aguirre, she had a different goal in ...

Multiple programs coming up for both fishing, boating

An online virtual ice fishing program on Thursday, Jan. 8 from 7-9 p.m. is hosted by Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission staff and trained fishing skills instructors. Sessions will be interactive and include interaction with staff. The program includes ice safety, where to find fish in the winter, basic ice fishing gear needed to get started, next level ice fishing gear and how to use the ice fishing gear. All who participate in the virtual ice fishing program will receive invitations to attend in-person ice fishing programs in northern Pennsylvania, anda post-program email with ...

Chillisquaque Creek offers microcosm of issues, opportunities for Susquehanna system

The 20-mile-long Chillisquaque Creek may not be the largest Pennsylvania River of the Year finalist, but the tributary of the Susquehanna’s West Branch is definitely symbolic of the greater river basin’s history, issues and potential to overcome those challenges with creative collaborative solutions, according to Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper John Zaktansky. “Many times, you look at the bigger Susquehanna River and can quickly get overwhelmed with the scale and scope of everything that needs to be done. However, when you focus on a snapshot like the Chillisquaque Creek and the ...

Reflections in Nature: Larch drops needles in fall, grows new in spring

On the hillside across from Alparon Park in Troy, there is a stand of evergreen trees that appear as if they have died. Through the years I been asked why this stand of trees died. My answer is they did not die. During the spring and summer months, the trees are very attractive, with their pale green needles, however in the fall, the needles turn yellow and drop to the ground, appearing if the trees have died. The trees are larch trees. The larch tree is the only conifer — except for the bald Cypress of the south — that drops its needles in the fall and grows new needles in the ...

Now is the time to fill doe tags, and here’s why so

We are entering the last few days of rifle deer season and now is the time to target does. Yes, I said it. Now is the time to fill doe tags. Let me explain why. Aside from the Saturday opener there is probably no topic that divides Pennsylvania hunters as much as shooting does. One group ...