Outdoor News Daily

Hunters should temper expectations for this spring’s turkey season after back-to-back years of dry conditions negatively impacted nesting success across much of Texas, resulting in fewer gobblers on the ground.

The good news is 2007 produced a bumper crop of birds and that carryover of mature toms in South Texas and the Hill Country, combined with excellent nesting habitat conditions this year, could result in above-normal breeding activity.

TPWD estimates about 72,000 hunters take part in Texas’ spring turkey season and take about 25,000 gobblers. Most of the state’s spring turkey hunting activity occurs in South Texas and in the Hill Country, where Texas Parks and Wildlife Department turkey program leader Jason Hardin noted timely rainfall could give the bird population a boost.
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Missouri has nearly everything it needs for a terrific duck season. Now it is just a matter of watching the weather.

For the second year in a row, ducks found plenty of nesting habitat, especially in the north-central United States. This Prairie Pothole Region produces most of the ducks that migrate through Missouri in what is known as the Mississippi Flyway.

The numbers are heartening. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) estimates North America’s total breeding duck population at 42 million. That is up 13 percent from last year and 25 percent more than the average since 1955.
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JEFFERSON CITY– Another cold, wet spring made nesting difficult for Missouri’s quail, but a break from the weather in August may have enabled beleaguered bobwhites to stage a limited comeback.

Quail continue to struggle against odds that seem stacked against them, but hunters in some areas may find more bobwhites than they might expect from this year’s weather. Missouri’s youth quail hunting season is Oct. 24 and 25. The regular season runs from Nov. 1 through Jan. 15.

QUAIL OUTLOOK
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Waterfowl season is already underway in parts of Oklahoma and will soon be in full swing statewide, with reports from biologists pointing toward a memorable and successful season.

Waterfowl season in the panhandle counties opened Oct. 10 and runs through Jan. 6, while the season in zone 1 runs Oct. 24 through Nov. 29 and Dec. 12 through Jan. 17, 2010. Zone 2 opens Nov. 7 and runs through Nov. 29 and Dec. 12 through Jan. 31, 2010.

According to Josh Richardson, migratory game bird biologist for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, opening days in zone 1 and 2 in recent years saw summer-like conditions that made for less successful hunts.
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