Dove, teal hunts set examples for future bird seasons
The first of this fall’s hunting seasons open on Sunday morning September 1st - 30 minutes prior to sunrise. Dove, early teal, and early goose all open.
The early teal season is still in its pre-teen years if you will. First established in 2014, many of us remember that event. Only ten years old, the USFWS evaluates the season every three years along with the states DNR. They look at several items, and hunters, along with results and management must pass muster on all points.
The state teal estimates, place the teal population at just over 103,000 birds, increasing by 2.4% over last year. In 2014 when the hunt first started, the teal population in Wisconsin stood at 57,000 teal. Teal start migrating early. So early that a lot of teal started migrating south in August.
The early goose season began over three decades ago. The season runs for 15 days providing liberal bag limits for geese. This hunt targets locally breeding Canada geese.
Nationwide the USFWS recently released the Waterfowl Population Status report. They detailed an overall 5% increase in breeding population of ducks. Nationwide teal are down, but mallards are up.
The dove hunt started in 2003 after a difficult and long struggle on the part of Wisconsin hunters and wildlife managers to establish the hunt. Nationwide, greater than 700,000 hunters hunt doves every year in 41 states. Mourning doves are the most abundant gamebird in North America. Dove hunting involves large gatherings and is woven into the culture of rural areas in southern states just like gun deer season in Wisconsin. Former President Jimmy Carter once penned an eloquent essay on the importance of dove hunting to him and his family.
In Wisconsin, between 10,000 – 15,000 hunters harvest up to 200,000 doves annually. Besides providing a challenging hunt to those that participate, doves provide excellent table fare, considered by most to be a delicacy. Dove hunting presents a relatively low bar of entry. Most hunters already own a shotgun and most own a camouflage jacket and hat. Add a bucket to sit on and a couple boxes of shells and you’re out in the field hunting doves.
When I started hunting, none of these three hunts existed. Neither did turkey hunting. No one thought Wisconsin hunters would ever enjoy a dove hunt unless they traveled to another state or country. No biological reason existed not to hunt doves, just sentiments and emotional baggage of a small segment of the population.
Conservation groups seek to establish a new hunting season in Wisconsin, on another species that no biological reason exist not to hunt that species, and continues to increase in population. Some of the best tasting wild game available from reports of people from other states. Not that any of us in Wisconsin would know, but our Canadian neighbors and friends from places like Texas and 16 other states do. Currently the state issues about the same number of depredation tags for sandhill cranes as the “expected” harvest quota of sandhills if a hunt gets established.
The proof that the state’s wildlife managers possess the expertise to ensure the long-term viability of species that we hunt lives in the success of bear, bobcat, deer, waterfowl, and small game hunts. Wisconsin hunters deserve the opportunities to hunt the species that the population biologically supports in the state. Wisconsin hunters have proven themselves to be conservationists and Wisconsin wildlife managers have proven capable of managing all the game and nongame species in the state.
Maybe in the next couple of years Wisconsin will hold its first sandhill crane hunt. How this all unfolds needs to base itself on factual information and not emotional rhetoric like it did with the dove hunt.
Less than a month from now we are all hunting everything from bear to waterfowl. Fourteen days from Saturday, archery deer season opens (so does grouse in case you’re wondering). I don’t know how the fall hunts will turn out exactly.
I know that the nights started cooling down in August. We are about to enter the promise of September, then onto the splendors of October, which gives way to the treasures of November. I know the first 30 days of hunting involves a lot of sweat and mosquitos. I know that the end of November brings cold weather. I know that it will be what it will be, nothing more and nothing less.
Wishing you tight lines this weekend and please remember, Safe Hunting is No Accident!
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CHUCK K OLAR LOCAL OUTDOORSMAN
