Waterfowl season dates set by ODNR

The 2012–13 water­fowl hunt­ing sea­son dates have been approved by the Ohio Wildlife Coun­cil, accord­ing to the ODNR Divi­sion of Wildlife.

The Lake Erie Marsh Zone encom­passes por­tions of Lucas, Wood, Ottawa, San­dusky and Erie coun­ties. The duck hunt­ing sea­son in the Lake Erie Marsh Zone is Oct. 13–28 fol­lowed by a sec­ond seg­ment that opens Nov. 10-Dec. 23. The duck hunt­ing sea­son in the North Zone is Oct. 13–28, fol­lowed by a sec­ond seg­ment that opens Nov. 24 and runs through Jan. 6, 2013. In the South Zone, duck sea­son is open Oct. 20–28, fol­lowed by a sec­ond seg­ment that opens Dec. 8 and runs through Jan. 27, 2013.

The daily bag limit for ducks is six, which may not include more than four mal­lards (no more than one may be female), three wood ducks, one black duck, two red­heads, four scaup, one can­vas­back, two pin­tails and one mot­tled duck. The daily bag limit for mer­gansers is five of which no more than two may be hooded mer­gansers. The daily bag limit for coots is 15. Pos­ses­sion lim­its after the first day are twice the daily bag limit.

In the Lake Erie Canada Goose Zone, the goose sea­son is Oct. 13–28 fol­lowed by a sec­ond seg­ment that opens Nov. 10 and runs through Jan. 10, 2013. The goose sea­son for the remain­der of the North Zone is Oct. 13–28, with a sec­ond seg­ment that runs from Nov. 24 through Jan. 6, 2013, and a third seg­ment from Jan. 12–29, 2013. In the South Zone, goose sea­son is Oct. 20-Nov. 11 fol­lowed by a sec­ond seg­ment that opens Dec. 8 and runs through Jan. 31, 2013.

The daily bag limit for Canada geese is three, raised from two. Light geese (snows, Ross’ and blues) have a daily bag limit of 10, white-fronted geese have a daily bag limit of one and brant have a daily bag limit of one. The pos­ses­sion limit for brant and geese is twice the daily bag limit after the first day.

Hunters 15 years of age and younger will have the oppor­tu­nity to enjoy spe­cial statewide youth water­fowl sea­sons. Young hunters in the Lake Erie Marsh Zone and North Zone can hunt Sept. 29–30. The dates for South Zone youth hunters are Nov. 23–24.

Licensed fal­con­ers can hunt ducks, geese, mer­gansers and coots statewide from Feb. 8, 2013, through March 10, 2013, in the Lake Erie Marsh, North and South Zones when­ever those zones are open to duck hunting.

Har­vest Infor­ma­tion Pro­gram cer­ti­fi­ca­tion is required of all water­fowl hunters prior to hunt­ing. Migra­tory game bird hunters must call 877-HIPOHIO (447‑6446) and answer a few sur­vey ques­tions to com­plete the HIP cer­ti­fi­ca­tion require­ment. Once the sur­vey has been com­pleted, hunters will be pro­vided a cer­ti­fi­ca­tion num­ber to write on their Ohio hunt­ing license.

Water­fowl hunters age 18 and older will also need a state wet­land habi­tat stamp which may be pur­chased at any hunt­ing license agent or at wildohio.com. In addi­tion, all water­fowl hunters age 16 and older must pos­sess a signed fed­eral duck stamp which can be pur­chased at most post offices.

Copies of this season’s water­fowl hunt­ing reg­u­la­tions, which include maps of the zones (Pub­li­ca­tion 5295, Water­fowl Hunt­ing Sea­sons), will be avail­able online at wildohio.com or avail­able at all license agent out­lets by late September.

• Due to a marina con­struc­tion project, cou­pled with the drier than nor­mal con­di­tions this year, duck hunt­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties at Delaware Wildlife Area and Delaware State Park may be dimin­ished this fall and win­ter, accord­ing to the ODNR.

To facil­i­tate boat ramp repairs at the Delaware marina, Delaware Reser­voir will begin its annual win­ter draw­down on Sept. 10 instead of the nor­mal Oct. 1 date. Addi­tion­ally, the lake is being drawn down more than nor­mal in order to relieve stresses placed on the drink­ing water sys­tem by these drier than nor­mal conditions.

Due to low lake lev­els, Delaware Wildlife Area will be unable to pump water from Delaware Reser­voir to fill their marshes for early duck sea­son. These pumped marshes pro­vide an ideal habi­tat for migrat­ing water­fowl and shore­birds. Water­fowlers and bird watch­ers that uti­lize this area may see fewer birds and species this season.

All boat ramps are expected to remain inac­ces­si­ble through­out the duck hunt­ing sea­son, includ­ing the ramp within the Delaware Wildlife Area. Duck blinds will only be acces­si­ble by foot or water­craft launched by hand.

• Ohio’s squir­rel sea­son will open on Sept. 1 and pro­vide hunters with an oppor­tu­nity to take as many as six squir­rels each day, accord­ing to the Divi­sion of Wildlife.

Ohio’s squir­rel sea­son, a long-time tra­di­tion for many hunters, offers ample hunt­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for fox and gray squir­rels across the state. This is an excel­lent time to take a youth hunt­ing or scout for the upcom­ing deer and fall wild turkey hunt­ing sea­sons. Legal hunt­ing hours are one-half hour before sun­rise to sun­set daily.

Squir­rel sea­son will be closed dur­ing the one-week statewide deer gun sea­son, Nov. 26-Dec. 2.

The abun­dance of nut crops is a good indi­ca­tor of squir­rel num­bers the fol­low­ing year. Statewide nut pro­duc­tion rat­ings for fall 2011 were lower in com­par­i­son to those from 2010. How­ever, the pre­dicted squir­rel hunt­ing out­look for the 2012–13 sea­son is again above aver­age. Although oak pro­duc­tion was aver­age, sub­stan­tial increases in wal­nut pro­duc­tion occurred through­out the state dur­ing fall 2011. Increased food sup­ply in con­cert with an excep­tion­ally mild win­ter should lead to high squir­rel den­si­ties and increased hunt­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties this fall.

Pri­mary fox squir­rel range occurs pre­dom­i­nately in the agri­cul­tural land­scapes in the north­east­ern and west­ern regions of Ohio, whereas the pri­mary gray squir­rel range is in the exten­sively forested east-central, south­east­ern and south-central regions. Gray squir­rels are more depen­dent on hard mast, and their abun­dance is closely tied to the mast crop the pre­vi­ous fall. Fox squir­rels are less depen­dent upon mast crop resources and likely use sup­ple­men­tal food in agri­cul­tural areas.

Hunters who wish to par­tic­i­pate in the Squir­rel Hunt­ing Diary Pro­gram, designed to track trends in nut crops and squir­rel pop­u­la­tions across the Buck­eye State, should con­tact the Water­loo Wildlife Research Sta­tion, 360 East State St., Athens, Ohio 45701, at 740–589-9930 for more information.

Until next time, Good Hunt­ing and Good Fishing!

Posted by Rob Hamilton on Aug 29 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.