WEBVTT - Ep. 486: Backwoods University - A New Hunting Season 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:08.640 Welcome to Backwoods University, a place where we focus on wildlife, 0:00:08.720 --> 0:00:11.640 wild places and the people who dedicate their lives to 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:14.560 get serving both. Big shout out to ONEX Hunt for 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:18.120 their support of this podcast. I'm your host, Lake Pickle, 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:22.160 and in this episode we've got some big and exciting news. 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:26.040 There is a new hunting season, like brand new getting 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:29.320 opened up to the public and that doesn't happen every day. 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:33.360 The state of Louisiana is opening a special black bellied 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:37.720 whistling duck season this October. I mean, how cool is that? 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:41.080 New hunting opportunities is something to celebrate, But as always, 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:44.159 there's a much bigger story to be told, like what 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:46.919 is this duck? Where did it come from? What are 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:50.080 the implications of it? Setting up shop and several of 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:54.000 the southern coastal states. There is a whole lot to learn. 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:56.800 And also, if you have not noticed, I happen to 0:00:56.800 --> 0:00:59.720 be wearing my bear Grease bibbs. My good friend Clay 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:02.840 new who y'all already know in First Light, have been 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:05.520 working on these BIPs for quite some time and frankly 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:08.760 they are fantastic. Y'all should check them out. But anyway, 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:29.840 let's get into it. The year was twenty twelve. I 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:32.240 was working and Drew, Mississippi, which is right in the 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:34.800 heart of the Mississippi Delta, for a property that I 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:37.480 helped guide duck hunting on during the winter months. In 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:40.120 the summer, however, they held a boy's summer camp that 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:44.040 took kids out shooting, archery, clay shooting, bow fishing at night, 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:47.720 all kinds of crazy stuff. I distinctly remember one day 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:49.920 I was walking back from the clay range towards the 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:52.680 lodge in the middle of the day, paralleling along the 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:54.920 side of a big sloop. I happened to look up 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:57.200 into a tree and saw a bird perched on a 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:00.480 limb that I did not recognize. I'd never seen anything 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:02.920 like it before. I got my friend's attention, who was 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:04.640 working out there with me, and asked him what he 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:08.120 thought it was. His response was, Oh, that's one of 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:11.200 those black belly whistling ducks. And although I don't remember 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:14.280 my exact response, I'm most sure it was something along 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:16.600 the lines of what in the world did you just say? 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:19.680 I had never even heard of such. I even took 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:21.920 the time to stop and whip out my iPhone three 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:23.919 and try to get a sweet picture of this rare 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:27.280 avian species. I was so keyed up about the entire 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:29.680 incident in the event of getting to see one. I 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:32.160 went home and told all my friends and family about it. 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:34.360 I couldn't believe that I had laid eyes on this 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:38.000 rare kind of duck, which at the time was rare. 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:41.520 You just didn't see many of them around. You'd hear stories, 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:44.080 you talk to people that said they saw them, and 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:46.720 you'd hear reports that apparently there was more of them 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:49.560 down in South Louisiana and South Texas, And if you 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.200 were lucky, like I was, you laid eyes on one. 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:54.680 And all I knew about their origin at the time 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:58.120 is that they apparently weren't originally from here, and that 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:02.560 they had come from South America, Central America, something along 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:05.440 those lines. But like I said, that was the year 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:09.200 twenty twelve. In the year twenty twenty six, things have 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:10.160 changed quite a bit. 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:13.400 Maria just had our second warmest fall on record, and 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:17.239 experts think the warm weather maybe affecting birds and their behavior. 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:20.040 In fact, one neighborhood in Saint John the Baptist Parish 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:23.080 is seeing an influx of black bellied whistling ducks In 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:23.880 their backyard. 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:30.480 They are totally confused by whatever's going on. 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:30.920 You know. 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:34.480 They're called black bellied whistling ducks, and here at the 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:38.880 Riverlands subdivision in Laplace, the ducks have taken over. Kim 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:41.880 Hernandez has been living here for decades and says she's 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:44.280 never seen so many of them all at once. 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:47.400 The noise goes on all day long, even at nighttime. 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:49.920 If you don't have something to black noise, you will 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:50.920 hear that all night long. 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:53.280 She says. 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:56.400 They usually leave around September, but this year they're hanging 0:03:56.440 --> 0:03:59.720 out a bit longer. She thinks it's climate change, but 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:02.920 bird experts say there could be more to it. There's 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:07.360 something that is propping these birds to wander much more widely, 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:11.480 as well as expanding their core range. Kim Hernandez just 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:14.600 wants to enjoy her backyard again, she says. The ducks, 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:18.480 however beautiful they may be, have overstayed their welcome. 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:22.120 This has become where you can no longer come out 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:25.799 to the bulkhead and enjoy that any longer. 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:31.080 Like I said, things have changed a lot since my 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:34.280 first personal encounter with these birds back in twenty twelve. 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.720 Now they're becoming a public nuisance to some people in 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:41.320 South Louisiana apparently, and their numbers have grown so much 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:44.400 that they're getting their own special hunting season, which we're 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:47.320 going to dive into in great detail. But first we've 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:53.159 got to get a little bit more context. For most 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:57.839 of recorded natural history, this bird, the black bellied whistling duck, 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:02.320 has been in the tropic, a resident of coastal Mexico, 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:06.400 Central America, and down through South America as far as 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:11.520 Argentina and Brazil. A handful pushed up into deep South Texas, 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:13.480 but that was about as far north as you would 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:16.760 ever find. And the interesting thing is they're not known 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:19.880 for migrating much where it doesn't have to across most 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:23.080 of its range, it really just stays put. So the 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:27.200 question is, how does a non migratory tropical duck end 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:33.239 up in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, even 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:37.440 wandering into the Midwest. Somewhere in the late nineteen seventies, 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:41.479 something changed. Nobody flipped a switch or anything. There's not 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:43.760 a single event that you can point to, but the 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:48.880 range simply started moving north and east, and it hasn't 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:52.159 really stopped since by the year twenty twenty, the range 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:54.880 had swallowed most of the eastern half of the Lower 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:59.200 forty eight and it's tapping on the door of southeast Canada. However, 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:02.120 the highest concentrations of them now can be found in 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:06.919 places like South Texas, Florida, and of course South Louisiana, 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:09.159 which is why these ducks are now getting their own 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:12.080 special season, and it's about time we learn about it. 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:16.600 To do that, we've got a genuine subject expert. 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:19.640 My name is Jason Olzak. I'm the Waterfowl Program Manager 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:22.240 for the Louisiana Department of Wilac and Fisheries. I've been 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:26.520 in this role for about five years now. However, I've 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:30.440 been doing waterfowl work since I've left undergrad, so back 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:35.400 in the early two thousands, late nineties, nineteen nineties, actually 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:38.880 been working with ducks and waterfowl in some fashion or 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:43.520 another across the country. Gotcha Department. I've been with the 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:46.559 Louisiana Department WiLAN and Fisheries for twenty years now. 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:51.120 Because of Jason's position as Louisiana Waterfowl Program Coordinator and 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:54.599 his multiple years of experience, he is both uniquely and 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:57.720 perfectly suited to inform us on the topic of black 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:00.760 bellied whistling ducks and how it led to them getting 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:04.000 their own special hunting season. The first thing he's going 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:06.320 to tackle is getting us all a little bit more 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:07.960 familiar with the bird itself. 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:12.280 It's really unique, actually an odd for a duck, you know, 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:17.320 looking at him phylogenetically, they're not quite a duck, not 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:20.040 quite a goose. They're in the family and that today, 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:23.840 but they're in a separate subfamily from both the regular 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:27.600 ducks as we know them and the geese. So a 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:31.920 few unique things about them is, like geese, they're not 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:34.880 sexually dimorphic, so the males and the females look exactly 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:38.560 the same. The males stick around and help raise the brood, 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:41.880 so brude survival seems to be pretty high because they've 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:47.160 got five parental care throughout the growth period. Unique amongst 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:50.320 whistling ducks is that the male will actually incubate the 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:53.240 eggs too. You will not be uncommon to find a 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:56.239 male in a wood duck box, you know, sitting on eggs, 0:07:56.280 --> 0:08:00.960 so perhaps that increases you know, hatchability of eggs and 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:02.640 a nest as well. 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:06.680 So they're not quite a duck. But they're also not 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:10.240 quite a goose. They're fully their own thing, which I 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:12.480 find kind of cool. Along with the rest of the 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:15.760 facts that we just learned, what I'm interested in now 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:19.320 is how they established themselves so firmly in the state 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:20.040 of Louisiana. 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:24.360 There's been vagrant sightings in southern states going back to 0:08:24.440 --> 0:08:30.120 the eighties, maybe even into the late seventies, you know, Texas, Louisiana, 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:34.479 maybe Arkansas, Mississippi, Florida as well as another one of them. 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:39.240 But yeah, as far as making a permanent push into 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:43.240 this state, that started around the late nineties, early two thousands. 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:49.520 The first actual breeding observations you know bi biologists, that 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:53.320 was done in the early two thousands in southwest Louisiana. Again, 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:57.079 in the early two thousands, Louisiana did a breeding bird 0:08:57.080 --> 0:09:02.040 at list enlisted black belly whistling ducks as pretty much 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:04.480 confined as far as breeding anyway, is confined to the 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:08.640 southwestern portion of the state. Fast forward another ten twenty 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.920 years now and we've got them in every parish of 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:18.040 the state, breeding obviously year round residents, mostly in the 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:21.960 southern parishes of Louisiana along the Gulf Coast. But as 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:25.760 far as kind of annual occurrences, they're across the entire 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:29.880 eastern half of the US. Now, you know summer observations, 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:36.160 breeding records up into Minnesota and Ohio, you know that 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:40.080 far north. So this is a species that's been growing 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:44.400 in abundance and expanding their range for about twenty thirty years. Now. 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:47.400 Forgive me for interrupting, but I do feel the need 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:50.600 to interject the timeline that he just laid out. It 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:53.600 feels rapid to me. In just around twenty to thirty 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:58.199 years time, this bird that is ecologically not migratory, has 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:01.800 managed to expand its range not only in the Southern States, 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:04.080 but across the eastern half of the country. 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:08.000 That is wild, yeah, for sure, and I think they 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:12.000 You know, one thing about this species is there as 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:16.319 we see it anyway, they're real tolerant to human disturbance. 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:19.040 So one of the places where we have issues with 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:21.319 them here in Louisiana is at the ports on the 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:25.440 Mississippi River where they're loading grain. Obviously, there's a lot 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:28.760 of spillage there that's that's duck feed, so they take 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:32.400 advantage of that. And because they can tolerate all the 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:36.760 activity going on there, even the the hazing you know, 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:39.239 by the by the workers there to try to dissuade 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:43.480 them from being in those locations there that they're they 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:47.480 don't have a lot of fear, so that with the 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:51.200 ad labetum feed that they've got there, their fecundities probably 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:55.240 really high. And so they're doing well throughout Louisiana for sure, 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:58.160 and and the Gulf South in total. 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:01.839 So we have a water file species that has expanded 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:06.240 and established itself in the southern US, especially in southern Louisiana. 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:09.800 We have a waterfowl species that has grown rapidly in numbers, 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:14.079 and we have a waterfowl species that is apparently very 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:17.880 tolerant of human disturbance. The reasoning behind opening a special 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:20.960 hunting season is becoming more clear by the sentence. But 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:25.160 you can't just haphazardly start a hunting season. Well, I 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:28.080 suppose you could, but the outcome is likely not to 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:31.160 be great. To be done properly, these kind of things 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:34.760 require a fair amount of thought as far as season structure, 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:37.079 bag limits, and a lot of other factors that come 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:37.640 into play. 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:41.439 That being said, you know, as we kind of go 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:44.240 into this hunting season and kind of think about where 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:47.360 where success is going to be highest and where these 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:50.840 birds are most likely found. It's usually around areas with 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:57.079 some substantial wetland complexes. So typically outside of the breeding season, 0:11:57.120 --> 0:11:59.559 you're not going to find them in an isolated you know, 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:03.040 a little land out away from you know, the big 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:08.199 complexes that we have here in Louisiana. They're breeding phenology 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:10.160 is a little bit different, you know. One of the 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:13.280 first things we were worried about when black bellies, you know, 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:16.280 started coming into the state with the knowledge that they 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:19.559 use cavities just like wood ducks and our hooded mergansers, 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:22.600 is that there might be some competition there for nest sites, 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:27.760 nest spaces. We've done some research on that. Yeah, there's 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:30.880 some competition. There's some nests parasitism. They're just like wood 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:33.200 ducks and hoodi mergansers. They'll dump them, they'll dump an 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:36.079 egg and a wood duck nests of wood duck will 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:39.920 do the same. But wood ducks seem to start a 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:42.600 little bit earlier as far as nesting, and they're peak 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:45.920 nesting is a little bit earlier than black bellies. We're 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:49.800 seeing black belly peak nesting about June, so that's that's 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:53.280 quite a bit later than wood ducks, and with that too, 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:56.960 we'll see we'll see nesting activity all the way through August, 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:03.000 probably some of it even bleeds into September. So little 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:07.400 puffball ducklings to be on the water in September is 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:11.160 not uncommon at all, and even October I've seen them. 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:13.880 So that's one of the things too about you know, 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:17.640 structuring a hunting season for this species. Is the model 0:13:17.679 --> 0:13:21.160 of wildlife management North America anyways, is we don't shoot 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:24.520 vulnerable animals with young that are still you know, being 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:27.920 being brought up. So that's one of those things you 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:30.160 know that we were considering as the public's kind of 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:32.840 been clamoring for a tip for adding black bellies in 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:35.600 the September teal season, Well we knew at the time, 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:38.280 you know, there's a lot of young ducks still on 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:40.880 the water if if we were to start this season 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:43.760 and say mid September. So yeah, we're kind of going 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:47.319 into this a little bit cautiously, a little bit conservatively 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:50.880 with an October season, but yeah, we'll see what happens. 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:54.880 That's a very interesting and important bit of information there. 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:58.480 I know, anecdotally I've heard for several years now as 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:00.920 There's been a lot of clamoring for a special season 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:03.680 for these black bellied Whistling ducks. A lot of folks 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:06.920 have asked why we couldn't just somehow put it in September, 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:10.280 maybe intertwine it with till season. Well, now we know 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:13.000 part of the reason why it doesn't really line up 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:15.840 correctly with their breeding calendar, and with this being a 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:19.280 brand new season. I fully understand them being cautious as 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:27.280 they tread into this new territory. I imagine with kind 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:31.280 of this rapid you know, just you know, growth in 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:36.640 their distribution, people are seeing them more often talking about 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:40.800 figuring out this season. How to your knowledge, how long 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:43.760 have people been wanting there to be some sort of 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:46.600 special season for these ducks. I imagine it's been for 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:47.040 a while. 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:51.240 Oh yeah, for sure, you know, and you know, historically 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:55.840 people would see them during the tell season. We had opportunities, 0:14:55.840 --> 0:14:58.160 We've had opportunities in Louisiana to shoot them, you know, 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:01.400 early in the regular season, which in our case doesn't 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:08.680 open until about mid November in the coastal zone. But yeah, 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:11.280 hunters have noted that, you know that that opportunity at 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:13.720 Black Belly was the nuts as fleeting. You get maybe 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:16.960 opening weekend, a week or two into the season, and 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:18.520 then they're just not seeing them anymore. 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:19.040 You know. 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:21.480 Historically that thought was, well, they're going back to Texas, 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:23.840 they're going back to Mexico. That's why we don't have 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:27.440 those opportunities. Some additional research we've done here recently has 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:30.680 shown that that's not the case. These these birds are 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:37.080 sticking around in Louisiana throughout the year, certainly all the 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:40.520 way through the through the winter. In some specific areas, 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:43.640 they're not. It's just that they are, again alluding back 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:47.800 to their tolerance of human disturbance. They're they're just going 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:53.560 to those places where hunting can't take place, you know, neighborhoods, parks, zoos, 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:57.400 these these elevators along the river. So yeah, they're just 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:01.360 they're real good at identifying the safe place and holding 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:02.680 out through the winter there. 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:06.800 Talk to me about what all went into making the season, 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:09.160 everything from the dates to the bag limits, all of it. 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:12.640 Yeah, looking up records going back to two thousand and eight, 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:16.720 when the Louisiana Department while and Fisheries first made a 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:20.000 request of the Fishing Wildlife Service to add black bellied 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:23.400 whistling ducks to the September teal season, you kind of 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:28.080 identifying that as a potential increase in their harvest vulnerability 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:32.520 For us. However, the federal government has been adamant about 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:38.040 maintaining teal only in that season. You know that some 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:40.360 of your listeners will certainly be aware. There's some states 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:43.920 that have a telen A wood duck season though, but 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:48.880 that comes with a penalty of days. So you know, 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:52.680 states like Kentucky and Tennessee have a telen A wood 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:55.480 duck but during the years that we have a sixteen 0:16:55.560 --> 0:17:00.400 day teal season, they only get nine days. Here's like 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:02.720 like this year where we got a nine day teal season, 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:06.960 they're only getting five. So Louisiana annually harvest is about 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:09.960 one hundred and thirty thousand blue wings during that September 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:13.880 teal season. So cutting back on days is just that's 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:17.359 a no go for this day. We'd be stupid to 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:21.359 sacrifice almost half of a teal season just to add 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:25.320 black bellies to it. So yeah, that was you know, 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:29.360 it's always been a no So we came into it 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:34.760 this time with a different ask. It's a different season, 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:36.800 it's separate from the September teal season. 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:40.960 Another important bit of information there. It gives us even 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:44.479 more context and understanding as to why they decided not 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:47.879 to combine till season with this new black bellied whistling 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:51.200 duck season. Basically, if they were to combine the two, 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:54.960 they would have fewer days to hunt overall. Till season 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:57.959 is very popular in Louisiana, so they opted not to 0:17:58.000 --> 0:18:00.359 do that, which I think is a good all on 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:02.120 their part and a popular one. 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:08.520 You know, we set up this the bag limits pretty conservatively, 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:11.080 I think, you know, to four bird bag limit, you know, 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:15.520 twelve possession. It's only a nine day season, but yeah, 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:18.720 for three or four years, you know, it's an experimental season. 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:20.720 We're going to evaluate what can we what can we 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:24.320 achieve as far as total harvest and harvest rates on 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:27.119 this species. I don't think we're gonna come anywhere close 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:32.040 to an objective harvest rate. Kind of what we've got 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:35.400 in the proposal that we put together was a fifteen 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:39.199 percent aspirational harvest rate on this species to kind of 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:43.600 maintain the population where it is so it's not continuing 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:46.920 to grow. But yeah, with a nine day season, four 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:49.080 bird bag limit, I'm not sure that we can we 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:54.760 can achieve that. But again, coming to it conservatively, you know, 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:57.119 we're not asking too much here. It's separate from the 0:18:57.119 --> 0:19:00.920 teal season, and we finally get a yes. Misissippi Flyway 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:04.360 Council approved it. We got buy in from the other 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:08.440 flyways as well, so with all four flyways in support, 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:11.440 it goes to the Service Regulations Committee of the Fish 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:15.720 and Wildlife Service and it was approved there last December. 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:19.320 So here we are, we finally got this experimental season. 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:21.960 Tell you what I think. I think it's good for 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:23.879 all of us to know a little bit more about 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:27.080 what all goes into establishing a hunting season, or a 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:30.119 bag limit or anything else that goes into this. I 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:33.040 know Jason covered all that pretty quick and efficiently for us, 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:36.240 but just think a little bit about all the work, research, 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:38.560 and time that he and a lot of other folks 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:41.840 put in to finally get this experimental nine day season. 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:45.680 That's some real effort, and frankly, it ought to be applauded. 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:48.720 Another thing I find pretty cool is that now in 0:19:48.760 --> 0:19:52.520 Louisiana you have two hunting in September, black bellied whistling 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:55.800 duck hunting in October, and then regular duck hunting in November. 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:59.640 That's some pretty consistent hunting opportunity, which is a good thing, 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:02.160 right well, but obviously. 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:03.840 There's some pros and cons to that too, you know. 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:06.400 So you know, some of the cons might be that 0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:10.440 these birds have already experienced a teal season, so they 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:13.879 know the shotguns have been been firing. They may be 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:17.080 a little bit more wary. They may have already sought 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:20.280 out some some urban refugea so that that there'd be 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:24.000 a potential con And then also you know that that 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:26.959 break between teal season and the regular duck season kind 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:30.840 of let migrants start settling in, you know, leave the 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:33.040 Marshall loan for a little bit let birds build up. 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:38.520 There might be some impacts to that too, but yeah, yeah, 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:40.520 and that's one of the reasons too, we really wanted 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:43.439 to frontload this at the beginning of October and not 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:45.600 go into into sure ye. 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:49.960 Sure, yeah, So that's a good that that raises a 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:54.520 good question. So like as I imagine like. 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:55.639 Like a lot of your like public. 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:58.920 Land and and nwrs and stuff like, will those will 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:01.480 will those be opened up for people to hunt during 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:04.680 this black wealthy season at this time, all. 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:09.320 Of our WMA's will be open We are waiting to 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:12.440 hear back from the FEDS as to whether the National 0:21:12.480 --> 0:21:16.879 Wildlife Refugees will be open. I've heard positive things about that. 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:20.159 It was kind of late them getting it into their brochures, 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:24.520 but yeah, you'll hunters will definitely want to check in 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:27.239 with the individual National Waldlife refuge to make sure that 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:31.600 that's open for that October season. Within Louisiana. As far 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:34.760 as licensing goes, you have to have all the licenses 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:37.280 that you would for a normal duck season, whether it 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:40.399 be teal or the regular duck season. In addition, though 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:44.840 for this October black Billy season only, you do have 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:47.159 to have it and it'll be a free permit. A 0:21:47.240 --> 0:21:50.679 black belly was a duck hunting permit. You can obtain 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:55.120 this where you buy your regular Louisiana licenses online. Again, 0:21:55.160 --> 0:21:57.440 it's a free permit, and that comes with a mandatory 0:21:57.680 --> 0:22:00.760 postseason reporting, so by the end of the season you've 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:05.359 got fifteen days to report harvest and hunter effort. That's 0:22:05.520 --> 0:22:08.719 just one of those you know it'd be in a 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:10.800 new season. We want to get as good a data 0:22:10.880 --> 0:22:14.480 as possible to kind of evaluate number one hunter interest. 0:22:15.040 --> 0:22:17.040 People have clamored for it for years but are they 0:22:17.160 --> 0:22:20.560 going into partake in and that's another question, and then 0:22:20.600 --> 0:22:25.479 also getting better harvest estimates for this season. In addition 0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:28.399 to that, the shooting hours are a little bit different 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:31.960 for the black bellies too. It's sunrise shooting time, not 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:36.080 half hour before sunrise. This gives up hunters an opportunity 0:22:36.119 --> 0:22:38.160 to you know, with a little bit better like conditions 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:42.040 to identify their targets again because it's black bellies only. 0:22:42.560 --> 0:22:45.959 And again the bag limit for per day, so that 0:22:46.119 --> 0:22:48.960 was That's one of the things still we get a 0:22:48.960 --> 0:22:52.120 lot of questions about, and yeah, just trying to try 0:22:52.160 --> 0:22:52.880 to get the word. 0:22:52.680 --> 0:22:56.919 Out again, we are continuing to learn how much thought 0:22:57.000 --> 0:23:01.000 goes into this. A new hunting season fantastic. However, in 0:23:01.080 --> 0:23:03.879 the name of not allowing it to degrade another hunting season, 0:23:04.200 --> 0:23:06.560 they moved it to early October so there would be 0:23:06.600 --> 0:23:09.320 no overlap. And it also sounds like there will be 0:23:09.320 --> 0:23:12.040 a good bit of access available to hunt and hopefully 0:23:12.080 --> 0:23:15.639