Texas Hunting Leases

Weekly migratory bird hunting reports are posted from early September through early February.

High Plains Mallard Management Unit: Goose hunters enjoyed better decoying action near Dumas, Spearman and Amarillo with the snow and colder conditions. Larger Canada geese are showing with frozen ponds in the northern states. Snow geese have been tough to fool over decoys without weather. Specklebellies and Canadas continue to work in Knox and Haskell counties. Duck numbers continue to build in the Panhandle, with more mallards showing on playas. Most hunters have had to break ice to find open water in shallow ponds. Prospects are good.

North Zone Duck: Duck hunters have taken good numbers of mallards in sloughs, creeks and river bottoms. Colder weather and frozen waterways to the north have encouraged more mallards to cross the state line. Canvasbacks and other divers have been steady on Lake O’Pines, Toledo Bend and Lake Fork. Backwaters around Toledo Bend has produced good mallard shoots as well. Gadwalls and wigeons have been taken in shallow coves of lakes and reservoirs. Wood ducks have been steady at first light in the timber. Hunting remained steady around the zone boundaries of IH-10. Freshwater impoundments have held pintails, wigeons, shovelers and green-winged teal. Prospects are good.

South Zone Duck: The coast continues to produce steady duck shoots on the prairies, marshes and bays. Gadwalls, wigeons, shovelers and pintails have been steady near Eagle Lake, Garwood and Wharton. Absent has been the large concentrations of green-winged teal that many hunters count on to fill limits. Bay hunters enjoyed limits to half-limits near Port O’Connor and Rockport. Redheads, bluebills, gadwalls and wigeons have made up the bay bags. Hunters in Trinity Bay have enjoyed half-limits of gadwalls and bluebills on the north shoreline. Marsh hunters near High Island and Sabine Pass have seen slow hunting. Snow goose hunting has been difficult, even with weather conducive to goose hunting. A small juvenile population of snows has been the culprit for slow decoying action. Specklebellies have shied from calling. Sandhill crane numbers are steady, but few hunters have set up decoy spreads. Most cranes have been harvested by goose hunters in white spreads. Prospects are good.

FORT WORTH, Texas —For the 14^th consecutive year, duck hunters in Texas will get the liberal waterfowl season with a 74-day season and six bird daily bag limit framework during the 2009-2010 general waterfowl seasons, but mottled ducks will be off the table during the first five days. The framework was finalized by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission at its Aug. 27 public meeting.

After three years under the Hunter’s Choice experimental bag, Texas will revert to a conventional six-duck limit per day in the aggregate, with the following species and sex restrictions: five mallards (of which only two may be hens), three wood ducks, two scaup, two redheads, one pintail, one canvasback, and one “dusky duck” (mottled duck, Mexican-like duck, black duck and their hybrids). Mottled ducks may not be harvested prior to Thursday, Nov. 5 in the North and South Zones and Nov. 2 in the High Plains Mallard Management Unit.

The bag limit on mergansers is 5 daily, of which only 2 may be hooded mergansers and the daily bag on coots is 15.

2009-2010 Waterfowl Seasons

DUCKS

High Plains Mallard Management Unit

Saturday/Sunday, Oct. 24 — 25

Friday, Oct. 30 through Sunday, Jan. 24

Youth-only season Saturday/Sunday, Oct. 17-18

North and South Zones

Saturday, Oct. 31 through Sunday, Nov. 29

Saturday, Dec. 12 through Sunday, Jan. 24

Youth-only season Saturday/Sunday, Oct. 24-25

Falconry season for ducks is Monday, Jan. 25 through Tuesday, Feb. 8 in the North and South Zones. There is no extended season in the High Plains Mallard Management Unit.

GEESE

Western Goose Zone

Saturday, Nov. 7 through Sunday, Feb. 7

The daily bag limit is 20 light geese in the aggregate and four Canada geese and one white-fronted goose. Possession limit is twice the daily bag limit for dark geese and no possession limit on light geese.

Eastern Goose Zone

Saturday, Oct. 31 through Sunday, Jan. 24 for light geese and Canada geese

Saturday, Oct. 31 through Sunday, Jan. 10 for white-fronted geese.

The daily bag limit is 20 light geese in the aggregate and three Canada geese and two white-fronted geese.

Light Goose Conservation Order

Monday, Feb. 8 through Sunday, Mar. 28 in the Western Goose Zone

Monday, Jan. 25 through Sunday, Mar. 28 in the Eastern Goose Zone

No bag or possession limits.

SANDHILL CRANE

Zone A

Saturday, Nov. 7 through Sunday, Feb. 7

Daily bag limit of three birds.

Zone B

Friday, Nov. 27 through Sunday, Feb. 7

Daily bag limit of three birds.

Zone C

Saturday, Dec. 19 through Sunday, Jan. 24

Daily bag limit of two birds.

Possession limits statewide are twice the daily bag limits.

New this year, purchase of the Federal Duck Stamp will cost $15-$17 depending on where you buy. If purchased through the TPWD license system there is a $2 administrative fee. Your license will indicate Federal Duck Stamp purchase and the physical stamp will be mailed. There are other options for purchasing the stamp, either at some major post offices or online.

Waterfowl hunters are reminded they will need to request HIP (Harvest Information Program) certification from the license clerk when purchasing their hunting license this year. HIP certification is required in order to hunt migratory game birds in Texas.

Also new this year, sandhill crane permits may be obtained in person at no cost only through TPWD Law Enforcement offices and TPWD headquarters in Austin. Permits are also available anytime online through TPWD’s online license sales and by calling 800-792-1112 (option 5, menu 2) or 512-389-4820 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. For online and phone orders, a confirmation number will be issued in lieu of a permit and a $5 transaction fee will be charged.

AUSTIN, Texas — Duck hunters in Texas will once again get the liberal waterfowl season with a 74-day season and six bird daily bag limit framework during the 2009-2010 general waterfowl seasons, but mottled ducks will be off the table during the first five days. The framework has been approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and is pending adoption by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission at its Aug. 27 public meeting.

The Service is holding Texas and Louisiana to a 20 percent harvest reduction on mottled ducks, citing a need for additional conservation based on estimated population declines resulting from major storms in recent years and slow habitat recovery due to extended drought conditions.

While Louisiana will be trimming its daily bag limit on mottled ducks from three birds to one to meet its 20 percent reduction in harvest, Texas can achieve the same goal with a five-day delay at the start of the season.

“We ran our harvest-per-day numbers on mottled ducks and determined we could wait and open hunting of mottled ducks on the sixth day of the season and achieve a 20 percent reduction because we were already at one dusky duck per day (mottled duck, Mexican duck or black duck),” said Vernon Bevill, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department program director for small game.

Bevill went on to say that mottled ducks are a front-end loaded species with the majority of the harvest occurring early in the season. “The sixth day falls on a Thursday (Nov. 5) and by opening on a weekday we feel mottled ducks will get a quick education before the hunting pressure goes back up on the second weekend,” he said. “They have suffered the impacts of several hurricanes destroying their breeding areas and flushing the wetlands with high salinities and destroying their food sources.

“The impact of the current drought is also slowing the wetland recovery from the effects of the hurricanes,” Bevill added. “But that said, when the rains return and the habitat recovers we should see a dramatic increase in their numbers. There is a lot of good news associated with the proposed 2009-10 regulations. We will once again have one each/day of pintails and canvasbacks as well as a three wood duck bag limit that will help East and North Texas duck hunters. If the drought holds on into the fall, those hunting over managed wetlands, around stock tanks fed by windmills, and rice fields will have some great hunting. We plan to have some migration chronology information in our late season digest to help hunters know when various species tend to migrate to, or through, Texas.”