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Thursday, April 26, 2007

Reporting turkey kills

By Bill Cochran

Spring gobbler hunters can use a telephone to check the turkeys they kill, but that’s not the case for fall turkey hunters. They have to take their bird to a game checking station, generally located in a country store or hunting shop. At that point, a wing feather and breast feathers are removed from the turkey to be used later to determine its age and sex.

The past fall, useable feathers from 873 turkeys were collected, out of a registered kill of 4,153 birds. Is it worth the trouble, especially with many hunters preferring the phone-in method?

“We’ve considered dropping the requirement for checking of turkeys in the fall but we rely on this information for so much, particularly with the media and hunters,” said Gary Norman, turkey biologist for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

The feather samples give biologists data on the success of the hatch, while the tally of turkeys provides information on hunter success.

Norman believes hunters continue to support the fall checking requirement, even through it demands more effort than the phone check.

“Missouri recently asked their hunters if they support checking requirements and they had 90 percent support,” Norman said.

Normally, about 50 percent of the feathers collected are the wrong ones, said Norman. The 873 useable count from last fall was particularly low.

“Despite the lower sample size, we still get good information,” said Norman.

Could biologists collect that information in another way?

“We’re exploring other ways of getting good reproduction data,” he said.

BILL

GETTING THE LEAD OUT

Years ago, I had a friend who owned a raven. The bird was extremely intelligent, could do tricks and would mimic certain human words.

My friend loved the raven to the point that he made provisions for its care in his will. As it turned out, this wasn’t necessary.

Every now and then we would shoot some crows to provide food for the raven. Before long, the bird became seriously ill and died. My friend, who was a biologist, figured out what had happed. The raven had died from lead poisoning after ingesting lead shot from the ammo we had pumped into the crows.

Later, in 1991, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would ban the use of lead ammo in waterfowl hunting after realizing that wildlife was dying after ingesting spent pellets.

Now the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is asking: if lead is bad news in the pursuit of ducks and geese, couldn’t the same be said for other species that hang around the same habitat?

This has the DGIF considering a regulation that would require hunters to use non-toxic ammunition during the pursuit of rails (Calpper, King, Sora and Virginia), snipe, gallinules, moorhens and mergansers.

It makes no sense to do otherwise, said Bob Duncan, chief of the DGIF wildlife division.

Getting the lead out in Virginia also is a fact of life across North America. Lead has been removed from paint, gasoline, food, pipes. One of the last footholds is the ammo used by hunters.

Canada banned the use of lead nationwide in 1999, and there are environmentalists who hope the same for America. California, which has noted lead poisoning in California condors, is considering a ban across the massive flying range of this species.

In some instances, under target are the lead weights used by anglers. New York banned the sale of small lead fishing weights after studies showed ducks, loons and other waterfowl were mistaking them for food. According to the Time report, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont also have regulated the use of lead weights used by anglers.

The “get-the-lead-out” advocates want hunters to use copper, bismuth, tungsten, steel, tin and other alloys in their shot. When federal officials banned the use of lead shot for waterfowl more than 15 years ago, hunters were left with steel, which they said increased the number of crippling shots because it was not as lethal as lead. Newer alloys have come along to help correct that, but many are expensive.

Some hunters will tell you that the movement simply is a backdoor approach to ban hunting and firearms. They say the threats of lead being advanced by environmentalists have not been fully documented.

Others say that any damage done by lead shot is offset by the higher crippling rate of steel.

BILL

OUTDOOR BRIEFS

>Americans have a better opinion of the National Rifle Association these days then they did in the mid-1990s. And calls for stricter gun-control laws have quieted somewhat. These are the findings of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

>Boaters in California are bracing to fight a state proposal to charge each boat owner $1,500 annually to put their boat into the water.

BILL

VIRGINIA SALTWATER TOURNAMENT

Here are the standings in the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament:

BLUEFISH: 16 pounds, caught by Peter Carey of Fredericksburg in the lower-eastern Chesapeake Bay.

BLUELINE TILEFISH: 19-pound, 14-ounce state record, Rick Wineman, Yorktown, ocean off Virginia Beach.

CROAKER: 3 pounds, 3 ounces, Cecil Smith, Shacklefords, lower York River.

FLOUNDER: 10 pounds, 9 ounces, Josh Garrison, Virginia Beach, lower-western Chesapeake Bay.

GRAY TRIGGERFISH: 4 pounds, 3 ounces, Julie Ball, Virginia Beach, ocean off Virginia Beach.

SEA BASS: 7 pounds, 7 ounces, David Howard, Leesburg, ocean off Virginia Beach.

SPECKLED TOURT: 11 pounds, 5 ounces, Daniel Peters, Chesapeake, Elizabeth River.

SPOT: 1 pound, 1 ounce, Joe Few, Virginia Beach, off Virginia Beach.

STRIPED BASS: 62 pounds, 1 ounce, Wayne Rickman, Mechanicsville, off Virginia Beach.

TAUTOG: 15 pounds, 13 ounces, Todd Ralph, Virginia Beach, off Virginia Beach.

MEETINGS/EVENTS/SEASONS

Botetourt Longbeards Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation, April 28, 6 p.m., Lord Botetourt High School, $45 for single; $60 for couple, includes meal and membership, tickets from Richard Pauley, 540-992-1883 and Ed McCoy, 540-473-2741.

James River Chapter of National Wild Turkey Federation hunt open to disabled sportsmen, April 28, details from Barry Arrington.

Cave Spring Optimist Fishing Tournament, Smith Mountain Lake, May 4-6, brochure at tackle shops, marinas and from KLbirk@aol.com.

Spring gobbler season ends, May 19.

Inaugural Great Dismal Swamp Birding Festival, May 11-13, guided walks, bus trips and family activities, all free. For information and registration call 757-986-3705.

“Learn to Fly Fish” workshop, 8:30 a.m., May 12, River Rock Park, Harrisonburg, $49, lunch and equipment provided, sponsored by the Massanutten Chapter Trout Unlimited, information from anthonydy@erols.com.

BASS Elite Series, June 7-10, 2007, Smith Mountain Lake, information from bassmaster.com.

Reedville Bluefish Derby, Buzzard’s Point Marine, June 8-9, Reedville reedvillebluefishderby.com.

Outdoor Writers Association of America conference, June 16-19, Hotel Roanoke.

The Western Regional Championship of the Virginia Big Game Show, Sept. 8-9, Rockingham County Fairgrounds near Harrisonburg, information from vpsa.org.

Hunters for the Hungry banquet, Sept. 8, Dave Sarmadi Mitsubishi dealership, Salem, inquire about tickets at Hunt4hungry@cs.com.

The Eastern Region and State Championship of the Virginia Big Game Show, Sept. 22 & 23, Southampton County Fairgrounds in Franklin, information from from vpsa.org.

DGIF meetings

Department of Game and Inland Fisheries board meeting, June 5, 9 a.m. at agency’s headquarters, 4000 W. Broad St.

Department of Game and Inland Fisheries board meeting, July 17, 9 a.m. at agency’s headquarters, 4000 W. Broad St.

Department of Game and Inland Fisheries board meeting, Aug. 21, 9 a.m. at agency’s headquarters, 4000 W. Broad St.

Department of Game and Inland Fisheries board meeting, Oct. 16, 9 a.m. at agency’s headquarters, 4000 W. Broad St.

Got an event? Let us know: xtrails@earthlink.net.
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