Pennsylvania's fall 2007 hunting season kicks off a half hour before sunrise Saturday with the opening of the early goose season.
Hunting day adds half hour in the evening
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It all starts Saturday.
When the sun rises Saturday morning, some 34,000 goose hunters scattered across the state will be lying in wait for the first flocks of Canada geese to traverse the skies.
They will be joined by dove hunters in the afternoon.
And so will begin Pennsylvania's fall 2007 hunting season.
Some buddies and I will be parked next to the same southern Chester County farm pond we've hunted the past seven or eight September goose season openers.
We haven't seen a goose there in more than a month, but that doesn't matter.
What's important is being out in the field again after a long hiatus.
And there's always the chance a flock will get spooked our way by some other hunters.
September is a prime time in Pennsylvania for goose hunting.
Last year, the September season ranked a close second to the fall season in terms of the number of Canadas shot by Pennsylvania hunters.
According to Pennsylvania Game Commission statistics, waterfowlers bagged an estimated 160,500 Canada geese in all three seasons last year — the September, fall and late winter seasons.
Although last year's kill was down 12 percent from the year before, it was tops among all states in the Atlantic Flyway, which hugs the East Coast.
Of the total kill, 47 percent of the geese were shot during the fall season, 42 percent in September and 11 percent in late winter.
Game Commission biologists figure there are 235,000 resident Canada geese in the state this year.
That's statistically similar to the long-term average population of 224,000.
The highest densities of geese were observed this spring in southeastern and northwestern parts of the state.
The number of Canada goose breeding pairs was estimated at 101,000, which is also considered to be statistically similar to the long-term average of 91,000.
The trend in Canada goose population estimates since 2000 appears stable, the Game Commission reports.
This is a result of significant expansion of hunting seasons and other lethal and non-lethal programs implemented to control Canada goose numbers.
The number of juveniles per adult female during the Game Commission's June leg-banding sessions was 1.35 — below the 1991-2006 average of 1.68.
Don't forget, during the September goose season this year, which runs through Sept. 25, the hunting day has been extended by a half hour in the evening.
Hunting previously was allowed only from a half hour before sunrise until sunset. This year, hunting is permitted until a half hour after sunset.
Pennsylvania's September season is aimed at the state's population of resident Canadas.
The migratory birds that wing through the state each fall typically don't start showing up until late September or early October.
Here in Lancaster County, we see geese from the Atlantic Population of Canadas.
These birds nest across a broad area of Northern Quebec with highest densities occurring in the Ungava Peninsula and along the Hudson Bay coast.
For this year, biologists estimated the Atlantic Population to have 195,000 breeding pairs and a total flock size of 1.22 million geese. Both figures are above the 2006 estimates.
However, nesting and banding studies across the birds' breeding range this spring and early summer indicated a poor nesting season due to a late spring thaw.
Therefore, the forecast is for poor reproduction, which means a large flight of Atlantic Population geese is expected this fall but with few juveniles in the flocks.
Following is the schedule of goose hunting seasons in Pennsylvania's various zones this year, outside the September season:
Duck seasons across the state are as follows (bag limits vary by species, so be sure to check your regulations manual):
One notable change in the duck-hunting regulations this year is that the daily bag for canvasbacks has been increased to two.
A special youth waterfowl day is scheduled for Sept. 22, when Canada geese and all ducks are fair game, in accordance with regular season bag limits.
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The second round of applying for doe tags in Pennsylvania began Monday. As of Wednesday afternoon, a total of 12 wildlife management units had exhausted their doe-tag allocations for the 2007-08 deer seasons.
Those units with no doe tags remaining are WMUs 1B, 2C, 2D, 2E, 2F, 2G, 3A, 3C, 4A, 4B, 4C and 4D.
WMU 5B, which covers Lancaster County, had 24,951 tags left.
Our neighboring WMU 5C had 37,141 tags left.
E-mail: preilly@lnpnews.com