Bobwhite quail populations in South Carolina and the Southeast have been declining steadily over the past 60 years due to major land use change and reduction in suitable habitat.
While sitting down to enjoy turkey during the Thanksgiving holiday, remember that although wild and domestic turkeys are genetically the same species, that’s about where the similarity ends.
The 2009-2010 late waterfowl season will soon get underway with the first segment opening on Wednesday, Nov. 25 running until Sunday, Nov. 29. The second segment begins Saturday, Dec. 12 and extends until Jan. 31. The season also includes three youth waterfowl hunting days. State youth day is Dec. 5, and federal youth days are Feb. 6-7, 2010.
The 2009-10 mourning dove seasons in South Carolina will resume as follows: Nov. 21-28; and Dec. 21–Jan. 15. Legal hunting hours for mourning dove season are from 30 minutes before sunrise until sunset. The daily bag limit is 15 birds per day.
Survey results for the 2008-09 hunting season show Clarendon, Sumter, Lee, Horry and Darlington counties were the top five counties for quail, while the top five counties for rabbits jumped per hour were Saluda, Lee, Greenwood, Hampton and Allendale, according to biologists with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources Small Game Project.
Nearly 50,000 turkey hunters take to the woods annually in South Carolina with hopes of harvesting a wily gobbler, and the 2009 spring turkey season was no exception. With a harvest of 16,234 birds, the spring turkey harvest was down about 9 percent from 2008.
After increasing slightly in 2008, reproduction by wild turkeys decreased once again in 2009 based on a S.C. Department of Natural Resources survey.
The two sister Carolina states have finally struck a deal over access to Crossroads Mountain, a remote section of the Jocassee Gorges in northern Oconee County.
The S.C. Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Waterfowl Advisory Committee, an advisory group to the DNR Board, has scheduled five listening sessions to be held around the state. The purpose of these meetings is to allow waterfowlers to express opinions about the management and hunting of waterfowl.
The Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Advisory Committee to the S.C. Natural Resources Board will meet 10 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13 in the H. Cooper Black Recreation Area, 279 Sporting Dog Trail, Cheraw.
