October 3, 2005
For More Information, Contact:
Mark Latti Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife mark.latti@maine.gov 207-287-6008 fax 207-287-6395 284 State Street 41 State House Station Augusta, ME 04333
October 3, 2005 Outdoor Report
Region A- Southwestern Maine
With fall just around the corner, many of Maine's hunting seasons have started or are just about to begin. I have talked to several hunters who were out with there kids during the Youth Waterfowl Hunt which was Saturday, September 24th and most saw ducks and several of the youth hunters were successful in bagging their first ducks. There has been a considerable amount of scouting activity in the Brownfield Wildlife Management Area, which has nearly 2000 acres of wetlands. Regular duck season opens on Monday, October 3rd. A quick look around the area last week indicated generally low water and an abundant crop of acorns with numerous wood ducks being seen. Regional personnel will be conducting our annual hunter bag check at the bog on October 3rd to track the first day kill and to look for the presence of lead shot in gizzards from mallards and black ducks. In past years, lead shot has been found in 25% of the gizzrads checked. Results from this year's bagcheck will be summarized in a later report. A second management area in the region which is popular with duck hunters is the Scarborough Marsh which is comprised of 2700 acres of salt marsh and mud flats.
On October 6th, there will be an informational meeting in Bridgton regarding the Departments proposal to expand the current moose hunting districts. This will be held at the Memorial School located on Depot Street and will start at 6:30 pm. The main focus of the meeting is to go over the moose/vehicle accident information and to solicit public comment regarding the change of the moose hunting zone to include more of southern Maine.
The abundant acorn crop, while beneficial to most wildlife species, may be especially helpful to some of the late turkey broods. The wet spring led to a considerable amount of renesting and these smaller birds will be going into the winter in much better condition as a result of the acorns in their diet. While there have been numerous comments in past years about the turkeys eating all the acorns before the deer can get to them, there certainly are plenty to go around this year. Actually, deer can get by without acorns since in many years, the oaks do not produce nuts. However, when available, they become a favorite food item for a wide range of wildlife.
I recently received a call from a bow hunter asking whether he could shoot a red deer. This hunter apparently had been asking permission to hunt in a local orchard and he was told there was a red deer on the property which had apparently escaped from a local deer farm. While the Department is actively working with the Department of Agriculture and federal Animal Damage Control Agents to remove these deer from the wild, it is not lawful for a hunter to kill one. There currently is no open season on red deer and they are considered a domestic animal by the Department of Agriculture. Any information on escaped domestic deer can be reported to the Department's office in Gray at 657-2345.
-Phil Bozenhard, Regional Wildlife Biologist
Region B - Central Maine
A tip of the hat is in order to our fishery biologists for their excellent reports detailing the complexities of fishery management across the state. Reading these reports, one can only admire the work of these dedicated professionals. Good job fishheads, now get back to work!
I was once again fortunate enough to be assigned to the New Sweden check station for the opening day of the annual moose hunt. The opening day was definitely the wettest I have witnessed in my fifteen years of working the moose season. With continual drenching rains on the first day, the kill was definitely down and those who did take a moose looked as if they had been mud wrestling by they time they reached the check station. The number of Moose checked at New Sweden was down by at least 50% as a result of the miserable hunting conditions. By Tuesday, high pressure prevailed and success rates quickly improved. Gas prices did not appear to deter hunters who continued to drive many miles in search of a good bull.
There's nothing like a new gadget to get you excited about the upcoming hunting season. I bought a new deer stand at last year's sportsman show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It's a quad pod, freestanding deer stand manufactured by a company in Texas. I have secured landowner permission, placed the stand in the woods and have cut trails and firing lanes in order to be ready for opening day. I firmly believe there is a direct relationship between pre-hunt scouting and hunter success.
The most significant problem facing wildlife managers in North America is the emergence of Chronic Wasting Disease associated with domestic and free ranging deer. With outbreaks recently reported in New York and now West Virginia, we are holding our collective breath in hopes Maine will be spared this calamity. All sportsmen must become informed of what can be done to help prevent this scourge from reaching our state. For an excellent resource, try www.cwd-info.org Maine will continue to monitor for this disease as we have during previous hunting seasons. All successful hunters, especially those in the northern part of the state, should contact your regional wildlife biologist to offer to have your deer sampled. We need and appreciate your cooperation in this effort. The future of deer hunting in Maine depends on it.
-Keel Kemper, Assistant Regional Wildlife Biologist
Region C - Downeast
The maple trees are turning red and the poplar trees are beginning to turn yellow. Everywhere you look Downeast, fall changes are creeping in. Whether you are looking for a place to hike, paddle, hunt or fish this fall, the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife's Wildlife Management Areas provide a wide range of outdoor opportunities.
The heart and soul of the Downeast Region's Wildlife Management Areas are the 10 Department owned properties around Cobscook Bay. One of my favorites is the Horan Head Unit on Straight Bay Road in Lubec. There are miles of hiking trails, including several loop options. Each of the trails offer their own intimate views of Cobscook Bay's convoluted shoreline or broad views from exposed ledge on top of a hill. On the hike in to the shore, watch for varied forest types that provide habitat for the region's wildlife; from towering white pines where bald eagles nest, to balsam fir thickets that provide cover for snowshoe hares and song birds. Horan Head shows little disturbance from human hands other than the trails and some evidence of homesteads and logging from the past. The trails are maintained in cooperation with the Cobscook Trails Coalition, which publish the Cobscook Trails guide, offering about 15 hiking destinations around Cobscook Bay.
Another place to get out and enjoy the fall colors and see some wildlife is on the Lyle Frost Wildlife Management Area in Eastbrook, which almost completely surrounds Scammon Pond. You can begin at the hand-carry boat launch near the dam on Molasses Pond Road. As you paddle southeast, the pond gets narrower until it is no more than 100 yards wide in some places. The pristine, boulder-strewn shoreline and extensive wetlands that border it draw moose, deer, beaver, osprey and varied waterfowl to the pond. The changing colors of the hills overlooking the southeast of the lake should be beautiful in the next few weeks. Back on land on the east side of the pond, are forest management blocks. These are strips and blocks that have been harvested to return parts of the forest to an early successional stage which will benefit species such as grouse, snowshoe hare, and many other species for years to come, not to mention the predators that rely on these species for food.
There are too many Wildlife Management Areas in Region C to list here, but each of them offer different opportunities to get out and see the results of various programs that have supported wildlife habitat acquisition in Maine. Some were purchased with money from Land for Maine's Future, some by the excise tax on hunting equipment, and others were transferred or donated by private land trusts, conservation organizations and members of the public. Regardless of the source, they belong to the people of Maine primarily for wildlife management; and as a bonus, for different forms of human recreation. For more information about where to go and what activities are allowed, call your local IFW regional wildlife biologists or check the website <http://www.state.me.us/ifw/wma/index.htm>. The Cobscook Trails Guide can be purchased at local retailers in the Cobscook Bay area or call Quoddy Regional Land Trust at 207-733-5509.
-Rich Bard, Assistant Regional Wildlife Biologist
Region D - Western Mountains
While examining a deer wintering area with a forester last week, we just about stepped on a snowshoe hare, causing it to run to a safer spot. The glimpse was good enough to see a small amount of white beginning to replace its summer-brown coat. Like the changing tree foliage colors, this is another true sign the days getting shorter.
Day-length or photoperiod is the key to the many behavioral and physical changes in wildlife. In real estate location is everything. To survive in the wild, and reproduce successfully, timing is everything. Temperature is far too variable to rely upon for migration, breeding, or changing one's color. Day length is exact, every day, every year. Gestation and incubation periods are to within a day, maybe two, for each species. Survival of young depends heavily on coming into this world when food is available and the climate survivable.
This is worth keeping in mind while deer hunting this October and November, or moose hunting if you are fortunate enough to have drawn a permit. High daily temperatures have far greater influence than low and will reduce daily movement, especially with moose. In the summer, moose deal with warm temperatures by cooling off where they eat, such as in shallow ponds and wetlands. Come fall, their diet shifts to foods found in a forest habitat. If temperatures go over 70 degrees they are going to be like a football fan on Sunday afternoon-horizontal for hours at a time with very little movement. With their breeding season virtually done by October, moose have little on their agenda but to eat, sleep, and be comfortable.
Deer on the other hand are entering the breeding season, which arrives like clockwork when day length tells their bodies its time to pass their genes onto another generation. Temperature has little effect on deer in the fall. All of us humans are probably guilty of assuming what affects us also affects wildlife the exact same way. If we of the temperature-controlled indoor world are shivering, then its lore that "the deer will start to move". When daily temperatures are in the 60s-70s, we wear T-shirts. When the temperature drops to 40 we wear jackets. It's not wise to assume that deer, a creature that lives outdoors when its 30 degrees below zero in February, is going to change its ways over such a minor temperature drop. That is especially true when finding the other sex is prominently on their mind. That would be like people altering their weekend plans if the temperature dropped from 65 degrees to 60 degrees. Older deer are creatures of habit and don't readily change those habits unless climatic changes with a given season are very dramatic.
-Chuck Hulsey Regional Wildlife Biologist
Region E - Moosehead Region
Last spring I was out harvesting moose lungs again, this time on Toe-of-the -Boot. Say what? In recent years quite a few young moose have died of heavy tick infestations and/or lung worms, which is a rather new and very important development for moose "managers." Those moose are generally approaching age 1. Bigger moose are much better able to handle tick loads. The speculation is that the tick populations grew following the build up of the moose population. If recruitment into the population of older animals is down, "allowable harvest," as a percentage of the population at large, may be changing downward.
We need to investigate, but how? It is nigh impossible to get good information on the magnitude of this loss. And we aren't sure whether the loss is constant or periodic. These moose tend to die in late winter when not many people are in the woods to notice and when getting around is difficult due to rutted and/or soft roads, high water, and patchy snow cover. Aerial composition counts which could be compared to herd composition counts done in the 80s are out because yearlings aren't too readily distinguished from older animals. What to do?
NH has taken the approach of radio-equipping calf moose & monitoring their survival. Preliminary results don't look good for the moose. We could follow suit except for the expense. And even then, it is doubtful sample size would be sufficiently large to be sure the rates obtained are representative. The only practical answer appears to be to follow trend information such as hunter success rates, reported sighting rates, incidence of road kill, and possibly age structure of the harvest.
We are roughly quantifying the degree of hair loss (Moose try to scrape off the ticks), and examining lungs to check for necrosis, i.e. lung capacity lost due to lung worms. It isn't bad once you get past the flies & ticks. You lift the front leg, skin out the front of the thorax, snip a few ribs, and the lungs are right there. I think I'll put in for a Tyvex suit. Fortunately, I remembered to bring along a bar of soap & a towel. Before I arrived the warden had passed a metal detector over the moose. I think the most plausible cause is that maybe that moose was trying to live in habitat which had gone by, which could mean this isn't happening everywhere.
-Bill Noble, Assistant Regional Fisheries Biologist
Region F, Penobscot Region
The September moose season dominated last week's hunting activity throughout the northern portion of Region F with WMDs 4, 5, 6, 11, and 19 keeping some of our 10 moose check stations busy. Wildlife Management District 4 was opened for the September hunting week for the first time, with 191 permits issued for the early season. I called our 10 stations Monday morning. A total of 226 moose were registered, up only slightly from last year's first week numbers. The Abol Bridge Campground Store check station took in many of the moose taken over in WMD 4 keeping those folks busy throughout the week. In talking to hunters, the moose were responding well to calling and several 900 (+) pounders were reported. Travis Smith from Greenbush brought down his moose that dressed out at 1125 pounds.
Hunting really kicked into high gear beginning October 1. Partridge, gray squirrel, snowshoe hare, raccoon, woodcock, and sea duck hunting all began with the regular bow season for deer beginning on September 29. Reports from the field suggest that partridge are spotty this year. A cold, wet, rainy spring most certainly negatively impacted our ground nesters which also include woodcock and turkey. Although reports on woodcock have been low, reports for both turkey and partridge suggest that there was nesting failure or as many reports indicate second nesting attempts. Grouse and turkey broods reported show a mix of body size on this year's young, with many brood's body size smaller than they should be come August and September. Keep in mind that there is an abundance of natural food available this year combined with leaf cover, at least for the next few weeks, so birds will become more visible in the days ahead. The regular duck season begins today. I have heard several flocks of geese migrating through along the Penobscot River and by moonlight as well.
Bait season for bear has now come and gone, but trappers, houndsman, and still hunters are still pursuing Maine's bruins. By all accounts, baits were active for the four-week season with plenty of action. However, with all the natural food available in the woods this year, bears weren't necessarily centered on bait sites and oftentimes were coming in at night. Houndsman during the two-week overlap with baiting may have been successful picking up these nighttime feeders by running them early the next day. An abundance of natural foods, combined with some poor hunting weather and perhaps less hunters than last year may add up to a lower than expected bait kill. -Mark Caron, Regional Wildlife Biologist
Region G - Aroostook and Allagash Region
For the first week of moose hunting in northern Maine, I was assigned to work at the New Sweden moose registration station at the Northstar Variety Store. On Monday, opening day, we had extremely heavy rains, making for poor moose hunting conditions. Rainfall totals of 1-4" were reported throughout northern Maine. Obviously, some moose hunters were successful in these adverse conditions, but when the harvest numbers are totaled, I expect Monday's moose harvest to be a record low on a day that normally is very busy. Fortunately, weather conditions improved dramatically Tuesday and Wednesday and we registered many trophy bull moose, some weighing over 900 lbs. (field dressed), and carrying antler spreads in the 50-56" range. In particular, we would like to congratulate both Buckley Parker from Jackson, Tennessee and Jeremy Koob from Ludington, Michigan for successful moose hunts. Buckley and Jeremy had the two "Hunt of a Lifetime" permits that are now given out by I.F. &W. to anyone under age 21 who has a life threatening illness.
During the moose season, I traveled through the Fish River Lake area just west of Portage and was quite surprised at the lack of moose hunting activity. This southern part of WMD #2 was an area where moose hunters previously seemed to congregate particularly when we used to have the single week of moose hunting. We had many complaints from hunters of overcrowding in this area. To help rectify this problem several years ago we changed the moose season to the existing two-week split season, trying to spread out hunters and improve the quality of the moose hunting experience. In the last few weeks I've seen some very large bull moose in this area and it does appear the existing season framework has made for a very high quality moose hunt in WMD #2.
Opening day of ruffed grouse or partridge season is usually a very busy day in the North Maine Woods. Grouse hunters traditionally are backed up at many of the North Maine Woods gate houses waiting for gate passes to enter the North Maine Woods System. With the high gas prices we've been concerned that some of our traditional grouse hunters may stay closer to home, however reports from gate attendants indicate large numbers of grouse hunters were out on Saturday taking advantage of a beautiful Fall day. Reports from Warden Service and gate attendants indicate most hunters did find a few grouse, but apparently no large numbers. Hopefully hunters will not get discouraged because grouse hunting usually improves by mid-October after leaf fall and cooler weather.
The fall foliage in northern Maine is close to it's peak, and the weather is still warm enough to get out and enjoy a number of outdoor activities. Take advantage, Fall in northern Maine doesn't get any better than this.
-Arlen Lovewell, Assistant Regional Wildlife Biologist,
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