DENVER — The two elk hunters found dead last week in southern Colorado were killed by lightning, according to the Conejos County coroner.

Andrew Porter, 25, of Asheville, N.C., and Ian Stasko, 25, of Salt Lake City, went missing on a hunting trip near the Colorado-New Mexico border in the Rio Grande National Forest. They were last heard from ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Geoff Smith, a biologist with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC), unfurled a weighted seine and plunged it into the water last Monday at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge.

Smith and two other PFBC scientists dragged the net through the shallows of the Heinz impoundment, a sprawling wetland in Philly fed by Darby...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Carson Wentz might be the only quarterback in the NFL who tosses a football with his right arm but shoots a bow with his left.

Granted, very few archers sling a football for a living.

But the right-arm, left-arm switcheroo is a head-scratcher nevertheless, and prompts a question: Is the recently acquired Vikings backup ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — Birds descend from the sky at dawn to take a break after their red-eye flight migrating south.

Where do they get breakfast and other meals to refuel for their journeys south, with some flying thousands of miles to reach their wintering grounds in South America?

During fall migration, Hays Woods, Pittsburgh's newest park, hosts ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Autumn doesn’t officially start until Sept. 22, but it already looks like the beginning of fall in parts of northern Minnesota.

The U.S. Forest Service’s regional fall color report last week singled out the Chippewa National Forest, where it said the transition already is striking: “Trees show hints of yellow, orange and ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The number of Minnesota pheasants counted in a recently completed August roadside survey jumped nearly 50% from the tally recorded last year, coming in 21% above the 10-year average, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

Steven Woodley, acting DNR upland game research scientist, said all regions of the pheasant range...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Ron Schara was hired by the Minneapolis Tribune in 1967 to pen that newspaper’s outdoors column. He was making $6,000 a year writing for the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department, and the Tribune offered him twice that amount.

“I took it,” Schara said. “Part of my interview was over lunch with the sports editor, ...Read more