The celebrations of the forth of July were followed up by the jubilations of waterfowlers as the 2003 pond counts and breeding bird population numbers came out this past week.
Hello, folks, and, as always, welcome to Waterfowler.com.
It looks as though the 2003-2004 waterfowl season is shaping up to be a good one. With this year’s pond counts some of the highest in decades and the breeding bird population of many species of waterfowl up from last year a collective smile broke out this past week on the faces of water fowlers across the continent. Things are looking up, so let the count down begin!
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And now, on to the Breeding Ground Report.
With the breeding bird population report out the first steps toward season setting has begun. Louisiana has published their tentative early teal season dates this week. Providing the numbers pan out the Bayou State will kick off their early season on the 13th of September and run for 16 days until September28th. In the coming weeks other states should begin to put forward there proposals as well.
With pond counts very high and the breeding populations rebounding to numbers equivalent to those from 2001 a liberal season package might look like a sure thing. However, until the AHM group comes out with their take on the numbers and the USFWS speaks their piece it would be unwise to start booking your trips just yet.
So, when should we know? Well if history is any gauge we should hear the first set of recommendations out of the USFWS and the AHM working group in the next week or two. Once these two bodies make their decisions it will be up to the individual states to set their seasons and bag limits within the given framework.
Momentum is building and waterfowlers have just caught a fiant glimps of the light at the end of the “off season” darkness.
