Archive for the 'Hunting' Category

Dove Regulations

Wednesday, August 29th, 2018
Mourning dove striking a pose.

Mourning dove striking a pose.

This is Passport to Texas

Some dove hunters may be surprised to learn that Texas does not set the state’s dove season or its bag limits. That falls to the US Fish & Wildlife Service.

 And the do it by management unit.

Texas is in the central management unit, or flyway. Owen Fitzsimmons, is Texas Parks and Wildlife’s web-less migratory game bird leader, and says Texas still has a say in the process.

What they’ll do, is they’ll set a range of dates. And within that range we have a window, essentially. We have 90 days that we can set the season however we see fit within the state.

Texas controls where in that range of dates our dove season falls.

And we can split it once. But we don’t have any control over bag limits. We have limits on when we can start the season and when we can stop the season, and things like that. We have some leeway, but most of it is controlled by Fish and Wildlife Service.

Data collected in Texas assists the US Fish and Wildlife service when deciding seasons and bag limits.

We have our banding program, which is a nationwide banding program for mourning dove. But, Fish & Wildlife service also does a parts collection survey.

Parts collection surveys—that’s tomorrow.

The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series and funds Mourning Dove Density, Distribution, and Harvest surveys in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Mourning Doves: Little Birds Big Business

Tuesday, August 28th, 2018
Mourning dove on a fence post.

Mourning dove on a fence post.

This is Passport to Texas

Dove hunting is big business in Texas.

As far as mourning dove go, Texas harvests 35-40% of the mourning dove taken in the US every year. So, it’s a huge business, and it’s a huge sport for Texas. We have a little over 400,000 hunters per year.

Owen Fitzsimmons is Texas Parks and Wildlife’s web-less migratory game bird leader. Texas has a large breeding population of dove, but it’s a migratory species.

Mourning dove breed everywhere from Canada to Mexico to even farther down south. We have a definite large breeding population here, but come September—during hunting season—hunters not only go after our Texas birds, but we have birds coming in from northern states. So it’s kind of mix of resident and migratory birds as well.

Before hunting season biologists like Fitzsimons, work with the Fish & Wildlife Service to collect data on dove.

One survey that we do is called the “call count survey”. It takes place in May and June every year. In Texas, we have our Parks and Wildlife field staff doing the surveys. And essentially it’s a series of points along the map. And they stop at a point and then survey for a couple of minutes, they write down what they hear and what they see. And all that information goes back to Fish and Wildlife service, and they look at it—on a much larger scale than we do here in Texas. But we use that information as well just to track our own populations.

The dove season opener in the North Zone is September first. It’s September 14 in the South Zone.

The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series and funds Mourning Dove Density, Distribution, and Harvest surveys in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Early Teal Season 16 Days Long

Monday, August 27th, 2018
Blue-winged teal.

Blue-winged teal.

This is Passport to Texas

Early teal season provides waterfowlers an opportunity to harvest ducks before the regular season opener in November. Whether hunters get a nine day or sixteen day season depends on the birds.

If the breeding population is above 4.7 million, you’re allowed a 16 day, 6 bird [daily] bag limit season. If it’s below 4.7 and above 3 million, you have a nine day season. Anything below – I believe it’s 3 million – the season’s closed.

Kevin Kraai (CRY) is waterfowl program leader for the wildlife division of Texas Parks and Wildlife . It’s been a good year for teal.

We’ve had a sustained long-term wet period [this year]. And the blue wing teal have just responded favorably to that.

A 16 day season opens Saturday, September 15 and closes Sunday, September 30. Kevin Kraai says to make sure you’re prepared.

Each hunter has to be certified in the Harvest Information Program. Additionally, they will need to have a migratory game bird stamp, offered by the state of Texas. As well as a [federal] waterfowl duck stamp.

Find hunting information for all game species on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series. Through your purchases of hunting and fishing equipment, and motorboat fuels, over 40 million dollars in conservation efforts are funded in Texas each year.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Challenges of Controlling Feral Swine

Thursday, August 16th, 2018

Herd of feral hogs.

This is Passport

Trapping and hunting are not effective controls against feral pigs.

These methods have not been able to reduce the geographic spread and the increase and abundance of feral pigs in our state, nationwide, and – I’m sorry to say – globally.

Justin Foster, research coordinator at TPWD for region two, says we need new tools to combat the pigs. The agency is evaluating sodium nitrite based pig toxicants.

What we don’t have is a tremendous amount of information that tells us that we can deliver any pesticide safely, reliably and humanely.

They’re collecting that data now. During one field test the pigs dropped baits, perhaps detecting a difference between the placebo and poison versions. This lead to unintended costs for passerine birds.

And so, as this bait was being dropped, and those feral pigs were going back to the feeder to try some more—it wasn’t so bad that they weren’t trying more—they were trampling the bait that had been dropped. And that bait had some grain in it. We assume those passerine birds were targeting that grain.

Researchers do not take such losses lightly, and continue to work on a reliable and humane protocol.

The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series and funds the development of toxicants and delivery strategies for controlling feral hogs in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.

2018-2019 Drawn Hunts

Monday, August 13th, 2018

Hunters in the field

This is Passport to Texas

If you’re a hunter who enjoys a game of chance—apply for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Drawn Hunts. This year about 9,500 permits in 49 hunt categories are up for grabs… for drawn hunts on public and private lands. Apply online.

New this season: hunters may draw special permit hunts for exotic Sambar deer, as well as for white-tailed deer on the new Powderhorn Wildlife Management Area. Also new this year: a youth archery deer hunt through an e-Postcard drawing at Palmetto State Park.

You can also apply for hunts managed by other entities, including almost 2,200 deer and exotic hunt positions on four U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Wildlife Refuges in Texas and 2,500 antlerless deer permits for U.S. Forest Service properties in East Texas.

Then there’s the program’s highly-popular private lands dove hunt permit category, which features almost 150 hunt slots at seven prime locations around the state. These permits are for dedicated hunt positions with quality dove hunting outfitters. Application fee is $10 with no additional hunt permit fees for this category.

Application deadlines are the first and fifteenth of each month. Entries cost $10; Youth Only category entries are always free. All applications, fee payments and permit issuance is handled electronically.

Find more information and view interactive maps on the Texas Parks and Wildlife drawn hunts webpage.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.