Archive for December, 2007
Posted on Friday, December 7th, 2007 by Maine Sportsman
Deer season just ended in northern Maine with the conclusion of the muzzleloader season on December 1. Because of snow cover and good deer tracking conditions, muzzleloader hunters enjoyed a very successful week of deer hunting. Field reports indicate a high number of muzzleloader hunters were out last week taking advantage of the good hunting conditions and many of them harvested deer. For those deer hunters wanting to continue muzzleloader hunting, an additional week of deer hunting is still available December 3-8 in wildlife management districts 12,13, 15 through 18, 20 through 26, and 29. Because these wildlife management districts have higher deer populations and can sustain higher deer harvests, we are able to allow an additional week of muzzleloader hunting in these districts.
This season’s weather in northern Maine is a good example of why we don’t extend the muzzleloader season another week to provide for additional hunting opportunity. Over the last 2 weeks weather in northern Maine has turned from typical fall weather to conditions we normally expect in mid-winter. Snow depths in the County range from just less than an inch in southern Aroostook County to 30” in the high hills bordering the St. John valley. Because of deep snow, deer in the mid-northern part of the region are now congregating in timber harvest operations and in winter deer yards. These early winter conditions restrict deer movement and also their ability to find highly nutritional foods putting stress on deer very early in the winter.
Hopefully, this winter weather will moderate. Winter is starting out very harsh for northern Maine deer and if the snow stays until April, which it often does, deer losses from starvation and predation could be substantial. This week we will be setting up weather stations in four deer yards scattered throughout the region to monitor winter severity on deer. Information collected at these weather stations will include temperature, snow depth, snow profile (e.g., crust or powder conditions) and deer sinking depths. This data will be collected weekly throughout the winter to determine the impact of winter weather on Maine’s deer herd.
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Tags: Aroostook County Hunting Report • Categories: General
Posted on Friday, December 7th, 2007 by Maine Sportsman
Week number one of the muzzleloader season for deer featured primarily windy conditions with one day of heavy rains and very little in the way of snowfall in the Region. Hunting conditions were much better during the early weekdays than it was for the latter half of the week and Saturday. Again, cold temperatures and high winds on Friday and Saturday made for difficult days of deer hunting.
We traveled to Page Farm WMA in Drew Plt. early in the week to assess an ongoing field reclamation project. Monies for this work were obtained through a National Wild Turkey Federation Superfund Project. The primary goal of this project is to re-establish some fields at Page Farm that have succumbed to succession and to eventually plant these areas with grasses and clovers to benefit turkeys along with many other species of wildlife. While there, we encountered several deer hunters that were still observing signs of the rut with some scrapes being maintained and new ones being created.
Some other activities that keep us busy this time of year are the wrap-up of deer biological data collection for the regular firearms season and preparing our Winter Severity Stations. Weather stations located throughout the state are monitored through a 20-week period to determine the severity of winter weather on our deer population. At each station, a probe monitors temperatures throughout the winter; snow depths are measured, and the sinking depths of deer are also recorded. From this information we can estimate deer losses from winter weather and, along with many other inputs, determine the allocation of Any-Deer Permits for the next season. Weather stations monitored in the Penobscot Region are located in Stacyville, Bancroft, Howland, and Argyle.
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Tags: Penobscot Valley Hunting Report • Categories: General
Posted on Friday, December 7th, 2007 by Maine Sportsman
We have kind of an odd situation here, where “threatened” lynx today are front page news, yet when they were scarce some 30 years ago, most people probably weren’t even aware of their existence in Maine.
I worked in the northernmost IF&W Region for 8 yrs in the 70s. I was in the woods very frequently, and saw the tracks of lynx only 3 or 4 times. I have worked in the Greenville Region for nearly 27 years now, and seen the tracks hundreds of time, mostly within the last 10 years. This suggests to me a marked increase in lynx over my career, which I attribute to the change in the make-up of the woods from acres & acres of merchantable or harvestable trees to acres and acres of rabbit cover, or regenerating clearcuts. In effect, lynx are now categorized as “Threatened,” even though they are more abundant now and receive much more attention and special consideration than when their numbers were low, which is sort of a contradiction.
One day last winter I traveled from Greenville to Rip Dam to Chamberlain Bridge to Cuxabexis Lake to Caucomgomoc Dam to Scott Brook and back to Greenville via Raggmuff, encountering lynx tracks approximately 30 times. Last year, for the first time, I was shown some lynx tracks within a mile of downtown Greenville. And last winter, I ran onto lynx tracks In Bald Mtn. Twp, west of Monson on two different occasions.
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Tags: Moosehead Region Hunting Report • Categories: General
Posted on Friday, December 7th, 2007 by Maine Sportsman
As the unofficial (for biologists) end to deer hunting came to a close last week, I spent most of my time chasing the last Chronic Wasting Disease samples in the Moscow and Brighton area. As of last Sunday, Region D biologists completed collecting samples from these areas thanks to local hunters. As far as deer kill rates, it’s really too early to call since our data is not yet compiled in a format that we can to compare to past years. I personally observed a number of adult bucks between 180 and 200+ pounds throughout the region. The overall trend seemed to suggest that there were many more young bucks killed this year, which coincides with the winter survival rates of last year’s fawns. Again, we will have to wait until all the data is available to see if the young deer trend is significant compared to other regions and previous years.
If you were not able to tag a deer in the regular firearms season, the next two weeks offer muzzleloading opportunities in selected WMD’s. This is a nice time to hunt especially with the snow we have received over the past few weeks. Be sure to consult with your hunting law book to make sure of dates and whether your WMD is open to muzzleloading. There is also plenty of time to hunt ruffed grouse and take advantage of the December season. The grouse are grouping together in shootable covers, making it very lucrative and possible to bag your limit. I also saw several snowshoe hare during the deer season, possibly making it a banner year for bunnies. Trappers are also gearing up this weekend for the start of beaver trapping season. Even though it’s getting colder, there are plenty of opportunities to enjoy the outdoors.
Tags: Western Mountains Hunting Report • Categories: General
Posted on Friday, December 7th, 2007 by Maine Sportsman
Even though Thanksgiving and days of turkey leftovers are a fading memory, turkeys continue to be a hot topic of conversation Downeast. As I write this, a flock of 19 wild turkeys are making their way across the blueberry ground outside my office window in Jonesboro, as they do almost every day at this time of year. The flock is a mixture of hens, poults (turkeys born last spring) and jakes (juvenile males born before last spring). The poults are almost as large as the hens now and it takes a pretty good look to see the size difference. Jakes are identifiable by their reddish heads and short beards, a tuft of feathers on the breast. The flock is also a mixture of banded and unbanded birds. The birds with metal bands on their legs are wild-born turkeys brought here in February of 2005 to establish a new flock in the area. After a rocky start, they had a great breeding season in 2007, resulting in the 10 or 12 unbanded birds that were born here.
Turkeys are thriving almost everywhere they are found and continue to pop up in new places. In Franklin, where turkeys have been a familiar presence for a few years, traffic was brought to a standstill recently as over 30 birds crossed Route 182 at 1:30 in the afternoon. Flocks have been seen repeatedly in Marshfield and in Machias near the high school in recent weeks. Turkeys have also been spotted in East Machias, a few in Lubec and, moving in from the north, a flock has been living and reproducing in Waite for the past two years. Although these pioneering turkeys are a good sign for turkey fans, there are still significant areas in Washington County with good habitat but no turkeys.
On a less optimistic note, a single turkey in Eastport has been hanging around homes and allowing people to approach him closely to give him food. This bird is almost certainly a captive-born bird that was released or escaped. It is illegal to possess “wild” turkeys in Maine without a propagation permit from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and it is always illegal to release these birds into the wild. They carry genes that are not adapted to our environment and may contaminate the wild population if they meet other turkeys and breed. The risk of disease transmission from captive birds is also a real danger for wild flocks. Not all mail order hatcheries, feed stores and pet shops know it is illegal for them to sell turkeys in Maine and it is ultimately the responsibility of the buyer to know the law.
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Tags: Downeast Hunting Report • Categories: General
