OUT & ABOUT
OUTBID
IFG auction goes online
Fishing, hunting, river rafting, backpacking and birdwatching are among the activities featured in 28 guided trips being auctioned on the Internet until noon April 9 to benefit Idaho Fish and Wildlife Foundation education programs.
The foundation’s 16th annual auction has broadened its appeal this year with online bidding for unique trips, such as joining Idaho Fish and Game Department researchers on a harlequin duck survey, drift boating and steelheading on the Salmon River, and sturgeon fishing and research in Hells Canyon.
Auction participants must pre-register online and wait a day for confirmation before bidding.
Info: www.ifwf.org, (208) 334-2648.
OUTWRITE
Hunter safety a hot topic
Sam Wilkes, 11, a home-schooled sixth-grader from Colbert, is making the most of the hunter education training he completed two years ago, scoring two trophies from the fall big-game season:
“A 4-by-5-point whitetail buck bagged while hunting with his father, Tom, near the end of the season after patiently passing up other opportunities for reasons he’d learned in hunter education.
“First place in the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s “Take Aim at Safety” writing contest. Wilkes compiled the hunting lessons he’d learned into an essay that earned an expense-paid trip Reno in February to attend the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s annual convention where he accepted his award and a Daisy Red Ryder air rifle.
The essay will be published in the foundation’s Bugle magazine.
OUTFIELD
Jingle jangle hawk
The dinner bell ringing at your bird feeder is no cause for alarm, unless you’re one of the birds.
A Northern goshawk that escaped from a local falconer has been enjoying easy pickin’s at South Spokane quail feeders in recent weeks. The hawk can be identified by a bell strapped to its leg, although the bell is designed to eventually fall off.
Falconers consider goshawks among the easiest birds of prey to train. This one, however, prefers the wild. The falconer who lost the bird said it is completely naturalized and will not come back to his lure.
OUTLOOK
Best fishing times
The U.S. Naval Observatory lists peak fishing times in these lunar tables. To maximize results, be fishing at least one hour before and continue one hour after given times, which apply to all time zones. (* indicates best days.)
Today through April 9
Today
5:05 p.m. 5:30 a.m.
* Monday
6 p.m. 6:35 a.m.
* Tuesday
6:55 p.m. 7:25 a.m.
Wednesday
7:50 p.m. 7:15 a.m.
Thursday
8:40 p.m. 8:05 a.m.
Friday
9:25 p.m. 9:45 a.m.
Saturday
10:05 p.m. 10:25 a.m.
Next Sunday
10:45 p.m. 11:05 a.m.