Ohio Wildlife Council approves bird season dates

The Ohio Wildlife Coun­cil has approved the state’s early migra­tory game bird hunt­ing sea­sons for this fall, accord­ing to the Ohio Depart­ment of Nat­ural Resources’ Divi­sion of Wildlife.

Sep­tem­ber 1 kicks off the state’s hunt­ing sea­son with the open­ing of dove, Canada goose, teal, rail, moorhen and snipe.

Ohio’s dove sea­son runs Sept. 1-Oct. 21 and Dec. 15-Jan. 2, 2013, with a daily limit of 15 birds and a pos­ses­sion limit of 30 birds.

Con­trolled dove hunts will be offered at Fallsville, Rush Run, Spring Val­ley, Indian Creek and Bott state wildlife areas. Bott Wildlife Area will hold its draw­ings at the Indian Creek Headquarters.

These con­trolled hunts will take place Sat­ur­day, Sept. 1 and Sun­day, Sept. 2; hunt­ing hours will be noon to sun­set. Con­trolled dove hunts will also be offered at St. Marys Fish Hatch­ery on Sept. 1–2, 8, 15 and 22. Youths 17-years-old and younger will be given pri­or­ity on Sept. 1–2.

Open­ing day draw­ings for all of these hunts will take place at noon, Sat­ur­day, Aug. 25 at the respec­tive pub­lic area head­quar­ters. Draw­ings for the other hunts will be held the day of the hunt at noon. Maps and details are avail­able at wildohio.com. Ques­tions about any of these hunts should be directed to the Divi­sion of Wildlife’s South­west Dis­trict office at 937–372-9261.

Canada geese may be hunted statewide Sept. 1–15 dur­ing the spe­cial early sea­son with a daily limit of four birds and pos­ses­sion limit of eight birds after the first day. Although closed in past years, the Mer­cer Canada Goose Zone will be open dur­ing the early Canada goose sea­son; thus, Canada geese can be hunted statewide dur­ing the early season.

The early teal hunt­ing sea­son will open Sept. 1 and end Sept. 16 with a daily bag limit of four birds and pos­ses­sion limit of eight after the first day.

Water­fowl hunters must have a valid hunt­ing license in addi­tion to a state wet­lands habi­tat stamp endorse­ment, a fed­eral duck stamp and a Har­vest Infor­ma­tion Pro­gram (HIP) certification.

Any­one who intends to hunt migra­tory game birds must obtain a new HIP cer­ti­fi­ca­tion each year.

Sora rails, Vir­ginia rails and moorhens can be hunted Sept.1-Nov. 9 with a daily limit of 25 rails and 15 moorhens. Hunt­ing sea­son for snipe will be Sept. 1-Nov. 25 and Dec. 15-Jan. 4, 2013, with a daily bag limit of eight. The wood­cock hunt­ing sea­son is open Oct. 12-Nov. 25 with a daily bag limit of three birds and a pos­ses­sion limit of six birds.

Hunt­ing hours dur­ing the sea­sons for rails, moorhens, snipe, wood­cock, teal, doves and Canada geese are sun­rise to sun­set. The only excep­tions will be on wildlife areas that have spe­cially posted hunt­ing times for doves.

The 2012–13 Ohio Hunt­ing and Trap­ping Reg­u­la­tions and the 2012 Migra­tory Game Bird Hunt­ing Sea­sons brochure can be found on line at wildohio.com. The 2012 Migra­tory Game Bird Hunt­ing Sea­sons brochure will be avail­able by late August at license out­lets, Divi­sion of Wildlife dis­trict offices or by call­ing 800-WILDLIFE.

Posted by Rob Hamilton on Jul 25 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.