Snow Goose Production Up, Strong Fall Flight Expected; Delta Waterfowl to Goose Hunters: ‘Get Ready’
Could a bumper crop of snow geese be in the offing for waterfowl hunters this year?
Dr. Robert “Rocky” Rockwell, a biology professor at City University of New York and one of North America’s leading authorities on snow geese, thinks so. Rockwell says the summer nesting season in the subarctic region of La Perouse Bay in northern Manitoba was “spectacular.”
“This is a huge production year,” says Rockwell, who was concerned about nesting success after last year’s dismal production. “This was the most bizarrely wet year I’ve ever seen up there. The birds nested 9 or 10 days earlier than normal, and as a result nest success was very high.”
Translation: Goose hunters are staring down the barrel of what could be a banner fall flight. “Predicting hunting can be a fool’s errand, and I never like to do it, but the upcoming season appears to be shaping up awfully well,” says Delta Waterfowl President Rob Olson. “My message to goose hunters is this: get ready. The migration could be packed with young-of-the-year birds.”
Delta to USFWS: States Need Flexible Zoning Options for Hunter Opportunity
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should allow states to have greater zoning options beginning for the 2011 waterfowl-hunting season, according to Delta Waterfowl Senior Vice President John Devney.
In a letter to acting USFWS Director Rowan Gould, Devney wrote, "States face myriad challenges when establishing hunting regulations and, in some cases, a lack of flexibility can make distribution of hunting opportunities a difficult task."
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife will consider new zoning options this fall. The idea is supported by the four Flyway Councils, the National Flyway Council and the Service Regulations Committee (SRC).
Read the entire letter (PDF)
Q&A: Delta Scientific Director Discusses Plan to ‘Shortstop’ Migratory Waterfowl from Oil-fouled Wetlands
BP’s Macondo well is capped—at least for now—and that’s welcome relief to Gulf Coast residents who are grappling with the economic, environmental and emotional fallout from the largest oil spill in U.S. history.
But serious questions remain for the millions of migratory birds that will begin descending on or through the Gulf Coast beginning this month.
“The fact is, when blue-winged teal start to show up here in August, no one knows what they’re going to find,” said Delta Waterfowl Scientific Director Dr. Frank Rohwer, who is also a professor at Louisiana State University’s School of Renewable Natural Resources. “We’re in unchartered territory.”
In the following Q&A, Dr. Rohwer weighs in on the short-stopping question, whether “hazing” birds from oil-contaminated areas is worth a try, and why he believes a season closure is a bad idea.
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