Hunters used to reporting banded ducks and geese by phone are likely going to have to change their habits.
Bob Frye/Everybody Adventures
Duck stamps are on sale right now. We know that.
But did you know this?
There are some changes coming to waterfowl season, to seasons and to how hunters report banded birds. There are some things to remember, too, when it comes to where you’re hunting and around whom you’re hunting.
Reporting
Hunters who have relied on the phone to report harvesting banded ducks and geese are going to have to switch to doing that online.
The only question appears to be when.
Ian Gregg, game management division chief with the Pennsylvania Game Commission, said the U.S. Geological Survey Bird Banding Lab is expected to do away with the toll-free reporting number, perhaps before fall.
Incompetence appears to be the reason.
“Right off the bat, about 20 to 30 percent of the calls that come into that line are dropped,” Gregg said. “People have to call back.”
Successfully reaching an operator doesn’t always help, though.
“I understand, theses phone operators, they might be taking one call that’s an order for cosmetics, and the next call is the band report,” Gregg said.
The result is that a lot of the data collected contains inaccuracies. Bird banding staff has to call in and try to get that corrected, he said, but it’s a big time and expense.
Getting a new phone vendor is apparently not an option. The last time bids were put out, Gregg said, the current company was the only one that applied.
Given those problems, and the fact that people have been migrating to the Internet to report birds anyway – 53 percent did that last season, compared to 41 percent who used the phone – the toll free number may be eliminated.
Banded birds can be reported online at www.reportband.gov.
Goose hunting
These are not your grandad’s Canada geese.
And that’s led to another change.
In decades past, Pymatuning wildlife management area in Crawford County got a lot of its Canada geese from what’s known as the Southern James Bay population, said Gregg. That’s no longer the case, he said.
That Bay population is smaller than it once was, and fewer of the birds are traveling to Pennsylvania, he added. Those two factors have likely impacted hunting, he admitted.
Then there’s the third part of what he called a “triple whammy.”
These days, most of the goose harvest that occurs at Pymatuning is of resident geese. The problem is those birds are typically harder to kill than migrants, he said, as they’re aware of the location of hunting blinds and sanctuary areas.
That caused hunters to ask if perhaps shortening the September resident goose season might lead to better hunting at Pymatuning.
The Game Commission listened. The season will this fall indeed be shorter.
In a portion of western Crawford County, the September Canada goose season will run Sept. 1-16 rather than the typical Sept. 1-25 and the daily bag limit will be 1 goose.
Whether that will make a difference remains to be seen.
The statewide resident goose population is thought to be about 250,000 or so birds. Pymatuning area hunters, over the course of a year, will harvest a higher percentage of them than hunters overall statewide, Gregg said. But the number killed in September is only average.
So shortening the early season may not lead to big changes, he said.
“It just means that there’s only so much we can do in September to move the needle at Pymatuning,” Gregg said.
Unfriendly neighbors
Now this counts as an odd case.
Last fall, dispatchers in the commission’s snorthwest region office took a call. An individual couple claimed to have been struck by shotgun pellets fired by waterfowl hunters.
Wildlife conservation officers were dispatched to investigate.
Clint Denicker, law enforcement supervisor for the region, said the ensuing investigation revealed the closest goose hunters were on private ground – not owned by the caller – and 340 yards away. They would have had to shoot into the wind to reach the callers, too.
Then, when officers asked to see the caller’s wounds, he declined to reveal them.
“It didn’t take very long to realize things didn’t add up,” Denicker said.
The case was ultimately considered an unfounded accident report.
“It really entailed the fact that the caller, the quote-unquote victim, just didn’t want hunters anywhere near his houses,” Denicker said.
There’s a lesson there for hunters, though, he said.
“If somebody accuses you of doing something you clearly didn’t do, stick around until we get there and we’ll work through it,” he said.
Safety zones
Here’s something for waterfowl hunters to remember.
One of the most common law violations committed by duck and goose hunters, and a leading cause of complaints from non-hunters, is related to safety zones, said Denicker.
Waterfowl hunters can’t shoot within 150 yards of a home, he said.
“That includes when you’re floating down the river behind somebody’s business or house. You still have to be mindful of that safety zone,” Denicker said.
