Something to shoot
for
Hunting season outlook favorable for waterfowlers
Return to Waterfowl Outfitters Unlimited
Copyright 2007
With
North America's spring population of ducks estimated to be the largest in a
decade and habitat conditions on northern nesting grounds holding good through
brood-rearing season, Dale Hall, like most of the nation's million-plus
waterfowl hunters, is smiling in anticipation.
"As
a duck hunter, I'm getting excited about the upcoming (hunting) season,"
Hall, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said earlier this month.
"There is lots of good news from the breeding grounds."
There
is plenty of good news from federal waterfowl managers who decide hunting
regulations, too, it seems.
The
wildlife agency's Regulations Committee earlier this month issued federal
frameworks for the 2007-08 duck and goose hunting seasons.
The
decisions — which include dates waterfowl seasons can open and close, maximum
length of those seasons, bag limits and other rules governing taking of
waterfowl — are the most liberal allowed under current management protocols.
"This
is the 12th consecutive year the Service frameworks have offered the most
liberal duck regulations in the package of options," said Dave Morrison,
waterfowl program leader for the
Under
the federal frameworks, most of
In the
western third of
The
liberal frameworks come in the wake of surveys indicating most of the 10 most
populous duck species on the continent saw population increases this spring
over a year ago.
The
annual spring survey, conducted each May and June since 1955, pegs the duck
population index at a little more than 41 million. "That's up 14 percent
over 2006 and 24 percent above the 1955-2006 average," Hall said.
Even
more impressive, Hall said, is that population indexes of five duck species are
at or near record levels.
The
canvasback population jumped with good conditions the past couple of years.
This year's canvasback index was 865,000, the highest in the 52 years of the
breeding population surveys and 50 percent above the long-term average.
The
record number of canvasbacks offers "a unique opportunity," said Paul
Schmidt, USFWS assistant director for migratory birds. Because of the thriving
canvasback numbers, federal waterfowl managers propose allowing waterfowlers in most of the country to take as many as two
canvasbacks per day.
The
last time
Waterfowlers in
This
will be the second year of Hunters Choice, which is aimed at determining if
allowing season-long but very limited harvest of ducks managers feel need
restricted harvest works as well as limiting harvest through the
season-within-a-season option.
Under
Hunters Choice, watefowlers have a five-duck bag
limit in which only one of the ducks can come from a list that includes
canvasback, mallard hen, pintail and mottled (dusky) duck.
Federal
waterfowl managers looked hard at further reducing the daily bag limit on scaup — the diving duck's population is 33 percent below
the long-term average, and this year's population index was the third lowest on
record. But, in the end, federal frameworks left the daily bag limit at two scaup.
But
that could change next year, when a scaup harvest
management plan is scheduled to be finalized.
"We
may need to consider additional restrictions (on scaup
harvest) if the trend continues," Schmidt said of the scaup
situation.
Goose
populations remain relatively stable, and federal frameworks reflect that
status quo. The only change in goose regulations for Texas is an increase in
the daily Canada goose bag limit in the state's western goose zone — hunters
will be allowed to take as many as four Canadas per
day this season, up one bird from a three-Canada limit this past season.
While
waterfowl managers expressed optimism about the success of duck nesting and
brood-rearing efforts this summer, they were less bullish about goose
reproduction.
A
late spring thaw in some of the major goose nesting regions of the Canadian
Arctic delayed nesting. Biologists predict lower than normal reproduction
(fewer young-of-the-year birds) and, in some cases, smaller fall flights.
PROPOSED WATERFOWL REGULATIONS
Based on federal frameworks announced earlier this month, the
Ducks, mergansers, coots
• North Zone: Nov. 3-25 and Dec.
8-Jan. 27.
• South Zone: Nov. 3-25 and Dec.
8-Jan. 27.
• High Plains Mallard Management Area: Oct.
20-21 and Oct. 26-Jan. 27.
• Youth-only duck season: Oct. 13-14
in High Plains Mallard Management Area; Oct. 27-28 in North and South Duck
Zones.
• Bag limits: Five ducks per day in
the aggregate. Those five ducks can include no more than two scaup, two redheads or two wood ducks. Also, the five-duck
limit can include no more than one duck from the following group: mallard hen;
"dusky" duck (mottled duck, black duck, Mexican-like
duck); canvasback; or pintail.
Merganser limit is
five per day, including no more than two hooded mergansers. Coot bag limit is
15 per day.
Geese
• East Zone season dates: Light geese
(snow, blue, Ross), Nov. 3-Jan.27. White-fronted geese, Nov.
3-Jan. 13.
• East Zone bag limits: Light geese,
20 per day; white-fronted geese, two per day;
• West Zone season dates: All geese,
Nov. 3-Feb. 5.
• West Zone bag limits: Light geese,
20 per day;
Light Geese
• East Zone: Jan. 28-March 30.
• West Zone: Feb. 6-March 30.
• Bag limit: No daily limit on light
geese during Conservation Season.
Sandhill Cranes
• Zone A: Nov. 3-Feb. 3.
• Zone B: Nov. 23-Feb. 3.
• Zone C: Dec. 22-Jan. 27.
• Bag limit: Three per day in Zones A
and B; two per day in Zone C.