Bird hunting dates have been approved

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

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 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.

• The ODNR Divi­sion of Wildlife is hold­ing open house meet­ings in all five dis­tricts to dis­cuss pro­posed rule changes to Ohio’s fish and wildlife rules. The meet­ings will be Sat­ur­day, Aug. 11, from 12–3 p.m. and are open to the public.

Rule pro­pos­als encom­pass new rules for wild ani­mal hunt­ing pre­serves, com­mer­cial bird shoot­ing pre­serves and wild cervi­daes to align with recently enacted leg­is­la­tion (House Bill 389). The rule pack­age also includes pro­pos­als to define the geo­graph­i­cal lim­its on reser­voirs and bag lim­its on selected fish species.

Also pro­posed is a mod­i­fi­ca­tion to the fish fil­let rule. The fol­low­ing changes are pro­posed: fil­lets must be kept whole until an angler reaches their per­ma­nent res­i­dence or until the fish are pre­pared for imme­di­ate con­sump­tion; there will be no require­ment to keep any skin on them; and this rule will not apply to anglers with a receipt from a fish clean­ing house or char­ter cap­tain which states the date, num­ber and species of fish.

Each open house loca­tion will have a fish and wildlife biol­o­gist, as well as law enforce­ment offi­cers avail­able to answer ques­tions. For those cus­tomers who are unable to attend an open house, com­ments will be accepted online at www.wildohio.com. The form will be avail­able now until Aug. 12.

Pub­lic input gath­ered at these open houses and through the online com­ments will be for­warded to the division’s cen­tral office and con­sid­ered dur­ing the for­mu­la­tion of reg­u­la­tions. The cen­tral Ohio open house will be held at the Dis­trict One Wildlife Office, 1500 Dublin Road, Colum­bus. For more infor­ma­tion, call 614–644-3925.

A statewide hear­ing on all pro­posed rules will be held on Thurs­day, Sept. 20 at 9 a.m. at the Divi­sion of Wildlife’s Dis­trict One office, located at 1500 Dublin Road, Colum­bus. This hear­ing is open to the pub­lic and com­ments are per­mit­ted. After con­sid­er­ing pub­lic input, the Ohio Wildlife Coun­cil will vote on the pro­posed rules dur­ing the Oct. 17 meeting.

For more infor­ma­tion or direc­tions to the open houses, visit the Divi­sion of Wildlife’s web­site at www.wildohio.com or call 800-WILDLIFE (945‑3543).

• Hunters inter­ested in hunt­ing Pick­erel Creek Wildlife Area on the open­ing day of teal and early goose sea­son are encour­aged to enter a lot­tery, accord­ing to the Ohio Depart­ment of Nat­ural Resources (ODNR), Divi­sion of Wildlife. In addi­tion, a sec­ond day of hunt­ing will be held on Labor Day. Dead­line for sub­mit­ting a lot­tery entry is Aug. 6.

Both adults and youth can apply for the adult morn­ing hunts. Only youth (17 and younger) can apply for the youth after­noon hunts. Zones will be assigned in the order they are drawn. Suc­cess­ful appli­cants will receive a per­mit and spe­cial instruc­tions in the mail. Per­mits are not trans­fer­able. Suc­cess­ful appli­cants may bring up to two guests to hunt with them.

To apply, appli­cants must sub­mit a 4x6 inch post­card list­ing their name, address, and phone num­ber. Only one post­card per appli­cant is allowed and no dupli­cates may be sub­mit­ted. Post­cards should be sent to: ODNR Divi­sion of Wildlife Dis­trict Two, 952 Lima Avenue, Find­lay, Ohio 45840. Post­cards need to be labeled at the top for the par­tic­u­lar hunt in which the hunter is apply­ing (Adult Teal; Youth Teal).

Pick­erel Creek Wildlife Area is located in San­dusky County off State Route 6, between Fre­mont and San­dusky and is one of the pre­mier teal hunt­ing spots in the state.

Until next time, Good Hunt­ing and Good Fishing!

Posted by Rob Hamilton on Aug 1 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.