Post by koonce on Jul 12, 2013 6:52:30 GMT -6
Well went to the annual waterfowl conservation meeting for the Mississippi zone last night to go over the season outlook, season dates, regulations and what not.
Season is looking good. Should be no reason we don't get another 60 day season this year. Blue bills should still be at 4 birds. Cans is looking like it will still stay at 1 unless a new counts shows an increase. Over all prediction is good. The high waters did take a toll on nesting. There are ducklings and goslings that are already on the large side with no down feathers and other that's seem to have just hatched, so the birds are doing what they can to keep re-nesting. banding is going okay, They are a little behind but will be out one more day to try and meet quota.
Went over the potential for an early teal in 2014 of anything from 5 days to 16, also went over an early 2 days all duck season that wont count against out 60 days season.
Teal season got a lot of votes. I like the idea of a 16 days season that way it will push regular season dates back giving us a later end date into mid December(I am all for later end dates).
9 am start. discussion went well, only about 3 ppl voted for that and they were all old fellas. Even the warden commented on it and how it is a huge waste of there time trying to determine whether a guy on the wi side was shooting early or if it was just a guy in MN, he said they had a bunch of wasted calls, so he was in favor of a 1/2hr before sunrise shooting time. Hope we get it...
The hen topic was fairly heated, mainly a few old timers wanting more hens and pushing for the younger generation to be allowed since they cant identify birds and they shouldn't be made a criminal for it. that was shot down by a few others saying they need to identify birds, that's part of hunting not just killing. Idea of less money spent on hen research and more on education in identification, which I was all for. Nothing pisses me off more than ppl shooting at a "duck".
Im sure I left some details out so if you have any questions feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer with what was discussed at the meeting.
Season is looking good. Should be no reason we don't get another 60 day season this year. Blue bills should still be at 4 birds. Cans is looking like it will still stay at 1 unless a new counts shows an increase. Over all prediction is good. The high waters did take a toll on nesting. There are ducklings and goslings that are already on the large side with no down feathers and other that's seem to have just hatched, so the birds are doing what they can to keep re-nesting. banding is going okay, They are a little behind but will be out one more day to try and meet quota.
Went over the potential for an early teal in 2014 of anything from 5 days to 16, also went over an early 2 days all duck season that wont count against out 60 days season.
Teal season got a lot of votes. I like the idea of a 16 days season that way it will push regular season dates back giving us a later end date into mid December(I am all for later end dates).
9 am start. discussion went well, only about 3 ppl voted for that and they were all old fellas. Even the warden commented on it and how it is a huge waste of there time trying to determine whether a guy on the wi side was shooting early or if it was just a guy in MN, he said they had a bunch of wasted calls, so he was in favor of a 1/2hr before sunrise shooting time. Hope we get it...
The hen topic was fairly heated, mainly a few old timers wanting more hens and pushing for the younger generation to be allowed since they cant identify birds and they shouldn't be made a criminal for it. that was shot down by a few others saying they need to identify birds, that's part of hunting not just killing. Idea of less money spent on hen research and more on education in identification, which I was all for. Nothing pisses me off more than ppl shooting at a "duck".
Im sure I left some details out so if you have any questions feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer with what was discussed at the meeting.
