Advocates for ducks and duck hunters are worried – Chicago Tribune
January 3, 2012
By Kerry Luft, Chicago Tribune reporter
HENNEPIN, Ill. — This was the scene that duck hunters see in their dreams.
Mallards came slip-sliding out of a frosty blue sky and careened toward our decoys, spilling air from their wings and dropping fast. They buzzed over the tree line and into the little waterhole where we waited under the branches, a few ducks shy of our limit but in no hurry for the spectacle to end.
Soon enough we were sloshing toward dry land, heavy game straps draped over our shoulders. And then Charlie Potter and I sat down to watch the show begin again.
That was our reward for long hours spent scanning pathetically empty skies, then abandoning a comfortable blind to slog through thigh-deep water to reach the spot where the ducks wanted to be. And Potter’s Labrador, Cotton, capped a memorable day with a heroic retrieve of a drake that otherwise would have been lost.
"It was fabulous, absolutely the way it should be," Potter said. "To finally figure out where to go and to be there when the birds decided to fly, that is so rewarding."
But while this has shaped up as a banner year for waterfowl across the continent, advocates for ducks and duck hunters are worried. A confluence of events — political, economic and meteorological — have combined to imperil critical habitat, and the impact could be devastating.
"The very things that gave us this boom could be going away," said John Devney, senior vice president of the Delta Waterfowl Foundation, an organization that works to promote waterfowl and waterfowl hunting in the U.S. and Canada.
"I would venture that less than one-half of 1 percent of all duck hunters have ever been to the breeding grounds to understand the tsunami that’s coming our way," added Potter, who is president and CEO of the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation in Dundee and host of WGN-AM 720′s "Great Outdoors" show. "We are blissfully ignorant."
Consider:
•High commodity prices have prompted farmers to drain wetlands and put once-fallow cropland back into production, cranking out bushels of valuable grain but eradicating the prairie grasses and brush that protect wildlife. Click Link Below For Full Story!
via Advocates for ducks and duck hunters are worried – Chicago Tribune.
Duck Commander to talk of hunting, Jesus’ salvation » The Huntsville Item
April 20, 2011
By Tori Brock Staff Reporter
HUNTSVILLE — “If it flies, it dies, and if it just sits there, it dies too!” If the Duckmen motto is any indication, Jase Robertson of the Outdoor Channel’s “Duck Commander” promises to bring some color to Huntsville on Thursday.
In addition to crafting duck calls and producing duck hunting DVDs, Robertson and his father, Phil, travel the country spreading a message of salvation. The Huntsville Church of Christ is hosting Jase Robertson at 6 p.m. Thursday and plans to feed the first 400 folks through the door.
According to the Robertson family website at www.duckcommander.com, “The Duckmen’s lives revolve around calling ducks, eating well and spreading the Gospel.”
Matt Springfield, minister of Huntsville Church of Christ, said he has been involved with various outdoor ministries over the years. For the past 20 years, he has been using Duck Commander duck calls and when he learned of the Robertson ministry, he figured it would be a perfect fit for the community.
“They have become wildly popular after their show got on the Outdoor Channel,” Springfield said. “They come in and give a discussion on duck hunting interwoven with a testimony of Jesus Christ. They try to merge the two as often as they can.”
Know federal regulations before bird hunting | The Clinton News
December 9, 2010
By Special to The Clinton News
As Mississippi’s 2010-11 waterfowl season kicks off, hunters, landowners and farmers are reminded to become familiar with existing federal baiting regulations before hunting migratory birds.
Along with setting season frameworks, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service maintains the authority to enforce baiting regulations.
The USFWS and MDWFP would like to remind hunters and farmers it is legal to take waterfowl over unharvested standing crops, flooded standing crops or croplands where seeds or grain have been scattered solely as the result of normal agriculture planting, harvesting, post-harvest manipulation, or normal soil stabilization practices.
According to USFWS, hunters and farmers should understand that shredding and plowing damaged croplands is not considered harvesting.
Those croplands where seed or grain is present may be considered a baited area until all the seed or grain is gone for 10 days. It is illegal to take migratory game birds by the aid of bait or over a baited area where a person knows, or reasonably should know, the area is baited.
Agricultural crops that are damaged in any way (for example, by disease) cannot be manipulated (mowed or disked) if you intend to hunt waterfowl. Manipulating these crops instead of allowing them to stand could be defined as manipulation of crops when waterfowl hunting. Click Link Below For Full Story!
via Know federal regulations before bird hunting | clintonnews.com | The Clinton News.
First waterfowl split fantastic for most hunters – Louisiana Sportsman
December 9, 2010
By Darren Digby
The 2010 duck season has been just what the doctor ordered, so far. Following lackluster early starts in recent years, this year bucked the trend with a parade of respectable cold fronts pushing into the Bayou State.
Though there have been a few warm days, hunters have enjoyed generally winter-like temperatures, with frost showing up on more than a few mornings; the most-recent front barreling through plunged temperatures for the closing morning of the split.
In a region where waterfowl hunting is so dependent upon the weather, it appears that the blessing of seasonable weather has resulted in respectable harvests throughout the state.
Hunter Shaffett with Whispering Oaks hunting lodge (225.301.7335) reported a great first split in the Vidalia area, with a surprising number of mallards showing up well ahead of schedule.
“We haven’t seen mallards like this in a while, especially at this point in the season,” Shaffett said.
He pointed out that water is critical to holding birds in his area right now in both the fields and the flooded hardwoods.
“The gadwall and the mallards showed up with the strong front right after Thanksgiving, and we’ve been hammering them ever since,” he added. Click Link Below For Full Story!
via First waterfowl split fantastic for most hunters – Louisiana Sportsman.
Game and Fish to consider 60 day duck season | Arkansas News
July 23, 2009
By Joe Mosby
Arkansas News Correspondent
LITTLE ROCK — State wildlife officials Thursday recommended a 60-day duck season with a daily limit of six ducks, of which four could be mallards.
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission will consider the recommendation by its wildlife management division at the commission’s Aug. 20 meeting, after season guidelines are handed down by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The 60-day, six-ducks-a-day season is the maximum allowed under the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Adaptive Harvest Management Plan that has been in effect since the late 1980s. The maximum has been in effect in Arkansas for the past dozen years. Surveys this summer have shown duck breeding conditions are good in Canada’s prairie regions and in the upper Midwest of the United States.
Two options were given in the proposed duck hunting dates by the wildlife staff. Both have three segments. One is Nov.26-Dec. 6, Dec. 6-24 and Dec. 26-Jan. 31. The other option is Nov. 21-29, Dec. 10-23 and Dec. 26-Jan. 21.
A two-day youth hunt was proposed for Feb. 6-7, but commissioners promptly objected and suggested Dec. 5-6 for the youth hunt. February is too late, too cold, one commissioner said.
The duck season dates also include the hunting of coots and mergansers.
The wildlife staff also proposed changing the daily duck limit for Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area to three ducks a day, of which two can be hens. Previous limit was one hen a day. Click link below for full story.
via Game and Fish to consider 60 day duck season | Arkansas News.
DNR officials clarify rules for Mississippi River duck hunt | Pierce County Herald | Ellsworth, Wisconsin
September 19, 2008
Published Thursday, September 18, 2008
Faced in recent years with an increasing number of complaints about open water duck hunting on the Mississippi River, state and federal wildlife officials are issuing a pre-season rule clarification – and a fair warning.
“Duck hunting on the Mississippi River is becoming more popular, attracting hunters from throughout Wisconsin,” said Steve Dewald, conservation warden supervisor with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in La Crosse.
“As a result, competition for hunting spots is increasing. Unfortunately, last fall we got a lot of complaints that some hunters were not following the rules regarding open water hunting,” he added.
Under Wisconsin law, open water hunting is prohibited with the exception of specified water bodies such as Lake Winnebago in northeast Wisconsin and Lake Pepin on the Mississippi.
The purpose of the rule is to direct hunters to the edges of water bodies and allow large numbers of ducks to rest and feed in open water during their fall migration, said Kent Van Horn, DNR migratory game bird ecologist Full story
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