Wildlife area tour

C

calamari

Member
I hunted doves on the opener and looked at several N. valley wildlife areas. All were extremely dry with almost no green veg. visible. Pheasant production on the areas should be about zero. The place I hunted last year that had Sudan grass and moist soil was fallowed and just sparse Star Thistle.
The only good outcome from the drought I saw was that there was a lot of farm land that was fallowed and more rank vegetation than I can remember seeing on private land. Did they get moisture at the right time to grow chicks is the question however. I doubt it because we didn't get any rain and they weren't going to irrigate a fallow field.
They raised the dove limit to 15 but it wasn't because there were more birds on public land anyway. I looked through about half the report cards at Gray Lodge and 0 or 2 was the most common report. I saw one card with 8 and one with 6 which were far and away the highest numbers on the cards I looked at.
I only talked to one guy who said he was shot twice which seems about right for public land dove hunting. Luckily the shooter was far enough away the guy wasn't hurt.
 
Last edited:
Dry, dry, dry is a tough forecast for our birds. I was encouraged to see quite a few healthy quail broods of different age classes throughout the spring and summer in some very dry range though so maybe some pheasants had some marginal success as well? Time will tell, though I expect it to be even worse than last season around here. A trip north or east seems like a good idea this year.:cheers:
 
I saw a couple coveys of quail on a Class C unit but it had a permanent lake and quail are able to deal with dry conditions better than pheasants.
 
calamari said:
I saw a couple coveys of quail on a Class C unit but it had a permanent lake and quail are able to deal with dry conditions better than pheasants.
Click to expand...

I know quail evolved in our arid climate and are better suited to deal with it but I was thinking that there may have been some bug production going on. I know its just optimism on my part but seeing multiple age classes and decent brood sizes of quail in the same family groups at least gave me a glimmer of hope.
 
This years dove flight was the best I've seen in 5 yrs.

I'll be up trying to move a few covies of mountain quail next weekend. :cheers:
 
Speaking of bugs, the mosquitos on the Class C area were thick and non existent on Gray Lodge. While I was there the truck from the Mosquito Abatement Dist. came through the parking lot. It's like they camp there.
QH, there were a lot of doves in the area a few weeks ago. They must have headed south to you. In the AM at Howard Slough 95+/- hunters checked in to hunt doves with only a five acre square and a long 50' wide strip planted that I know of. Glad I wasn't there for shoot time.
 
Funny story about mosquito abatement. I took a drive out to Merced NWR last spring to drive the loop. At the entrance there are some educational boards to inform you of what you're looking at and one was about how beneficial mosquitos are to upland nesting birds and just as I was reading it the county mosquito abatement truck pulled up to spray the area.:eek: Before I left I stopped and talked to some of the guys running the check in booth and I remarked about how many roosters I heard crowing and asked if they knew why pheasant hunting wasn't allowed out there. The response I got was a head scratcher, "The reason there are so many pheasants out here is because we don't allow pheasant hunting." At first I wanted to protest and talk about carrying capacity and how game animals can't be stock piled but I figured it would fall on deaf ears so I politely nodded and left. There's some really nice upland areas out there at the Merced refuge, hopefully I'll be able to hunt there some day.
 
"The reason there are so many pheasants out here is because we don't allow pheasant hunting."

Area managers are gods on their areas. Perhaps he doesn't want to have any duck-pheasant hunter conflicts? Merced as I recall is a very small WA. Maybe he'd rather have happy duck hunters and a few disgruntled pheasant hunters instead of all the duck hunters complaining to him? Who knows what runs through an area manager's mind. if you were really curious, try to talk to him and let us know. Check station help wouldn't be the best source for the reasoning.
 
From what I understand they manage around 10,000 acres at the Merced refuge and all their hunting is through lottery and blinds. I don't believe they have free roam areas for duck hunters but I'll check, so any conflict would be negligible. I've only had pleasant run ins with waterfowlers myself but I've heard some of the stories.

When I hear an answer like I got I just assume they know almost nothing or don't want to talk about it so I leave it alone. No loss, its not like it was my go to spot and all the sudden they quit letting pheasant hunters out there, but my duck stamps do go to manage those areas so it's a bit frustrating. I'll continue to support them buy purchasing my duck stamps regardless.
 
Being a federal refuge they are even less responsive to hunter issues, however, not allowing pheasant hunting isn't unique. Howard Slough for example doesn't allow any pheasant hunting free roam south of Hwy 162. Other refuges allow pheasant hunters only for the first few days of the season in the blind/assigned fields areas and then not at all. Standing up and yelling at a bunch of dogs when ducks are working doesn't work out real well so the easy route is taken and it's just prohibited.
I couldn't find a map of the Merced refuge but that 10,000 acre figure is probably for the entire unit with a large portion being in refuge with no public access. Just guessing but I don't know of any refuge that doesn't have a significant portion set aside that way.
 
They only allow hunting on Wed and Sat at the Merced refuge so they are really trying to provide quality duck hunting and keep the birds out of the surrounding areas crop lands. Here's the site that has email addresses for the people at the refuge who should be able to answer your questions about pheasant hunting. They're at the bottom of the page. Share what they say.


http://www.fws.gov/refuge/merced/hunt_program.html
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top