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(Provided by Indiana DNR)
Reynolds Creek Gamebird Habitat Area in Porter County now has two units available for waterfowl hunting.
These units will be included in the daily draw at the Kingsbury Fish & Wildlife Area check-station at 4:30 a.m. Central Time.
There will be one party (2 or 3 hunters per party) per unit with hunts offered on Sundays and Wednesdays only.
Shooting times will be 1/2 hour before sunrise to 1 p.m. Central Time. In addition to all state and federal regulations, hunters are limited to 25 shot-shells per hunter per day.
For additional information call the Kingsbury office at (219) 393-3612. Office hours are Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. Central Time.
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(Provided by Indiana DNR)
The regular-season waterfowl dates and late-season Canada goose dates for Indiana have been finalized.
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service accepted the dates as proposed, with no changes.
Season dates for ducks, coots and mergansers are:
- North Zone: Oct. 24 to Dec. 13 and Dec. 19-27
- Central Zone: Oct. 31 to Nov. 8 and Nov. 21 to Jan. 10
- South Zone: Oct. 31 to Nov. 8 and Nov. 28 to Jan. 17
The daily bag limit for ducks in all zones is six, including no more than four mallards (of which no more than two can be hens), three scaup, three wood ducks, two pintails, two redheads, two canvasbacks, one black duck and one mottled duck. The daily bag limit for coots is 15. The daily bag limit for mergansers, separate from ducks, is five, of which no more than two can be hooded mergansers. The possession limit is three times the daily bag limit.
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(Provided by Michigan DNR)
Check out Michigan's managed waterfowl areas for quality huntsHunters who have not been introduced to Michigan's Wetland Wonders - the DNR's managed waterfowl areas - have a unique opportunity to get to know five of them this year before duck season begins this fall. Open houses are scheduled for early October at the three Saginaw Bay areas, as well as at the Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie areas.
"The managed areas were really put together to provide high-quality waterfowl hunts in areas that would attract and hold ducks and geese," said Joe Robison, a wildlife biologist who supervises the five managed waterfowl areas in southeast Michigan. "That's what these areas were built for and that's what we're striving for.
"We manipulate water levels and provide balanced food sources," he continued. "We have crops of corn, buckwheat and millet, as well as good natural wild duck food - barnyard grass, wild millet and smartweed. And they're also all production areas, so we maintain prairie grass and nesting cover.
"You want to have a diversity of food, cover and water, and we've got that."
All managed waterfowl areas include refuge areas, where no hunting is allowed. Area managers conduct weekly surveys of refuges and post population estimates, as well as the habitat conditions, on the DNR website.
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(Provided by Michigan DNR)
DNR Duck Banding Showcased on DiscoveringEfforts by a Michigan DNR crew to band ducks at the Portage Marsh in Delta County were showcased recently on an episode of "Discovering" a weekly outdoors program produced by Brian Whitens and broadcast at on WLUC-TV6, Marquette.
The duck banding was part of the DNRís goal to manage for sustainable populations of wildlife species. The DNRís objective is to manage game populations to provide hunting and trapping opportunities while maintaining populations in balance with available habitat, land use practices and stakeholder values.
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(Provided by Michigan DNR)
DNR brought Canada geese back from near extinction.It's no secret that Michigan offers some of the best Canada goose hunting anywhere in the world. But many waterfowl hunters, whose perspective only covers the last 30 years or so, might have a hard time believing it wasn't always that way. Michigan's resident Canada goose population - which produces the lion's share of the annual harvest ñ was virtually nonexistent a century ago and not especially noteworthy five decades later.
"Back in the '50s, it was a rare thing to see a Canada goose in this state," said Barbara Avers, the waterfowl specialist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. "It was rare for hunters to kill a goose. It was a pretty big deal.
"The restoration program has been exceptionally successful."