The S.C. Department of Natural Resources (DNR) recently banded our 10,000th dove on July 6 at Crackerneck Wildlife Management Area in Aiken County. As of mid-August that number was up to 11,400.
The Harry Hampton Hunting & Fishing Expo is coming back to Spartanburg and Upstate South Carolina. The hunting, fishing and outdoors exposition will be held Aug. 21-23 at the Spartanburg Expo Center, 6655 Pottery Road, Spartanburg (Interstate 26, Exit 17).
Forty-six public dove fields will be available across the state during the 2009-10 season through the S.C. Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Management Area program.
The S.C. Natural Resources Board recently approved migratory bird hunting seasons for mourning doves, marsh hens (rails), woodcock, snipe, moorhens, purple gallinules, and early seasons during September for teal and Canada geese.
Wildlife biologists from the S.C. Department of Natural Resources and the Nemours Wildlife Foundation are working together to study king and clapper rails in the Ashepoo, Combahee, Edisto (ACE) Basin. Little is known about the life history of these birds and they have traditionally received little research attention. The team extensively expanded use of radio-transmitter telemetry more so than previous tracking studies. Data will also be compiled on reproductive biology and habitat vegetation.
Dove hunters still have time to plant fields to attract doves during the upcoming season, according to a wildlife biologist with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources.
The use of prescribed fire as a land management tool by DNR has a long history and the benefits were demonstrated during the recent wildfires at Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve. Prescribed burning and a relatively new machine called Gyro-Trac were directly responsible for saving 83 of 85 trees with active red-cockaded woodpeckers RCW by reducing the understory and mid-story fuels in the preserve.
Salmonella infections have been killing more wild birds than usual in the Southeast this winter, but the increase does not seem related to the nationwide human disease outbreak tied to tainted peanut products, according to wildlife scientists.
A South Carolina 2009 mid-winter survey of various waterfowl showed increased numbers of dabbling ducks and also diving ducks and geese.
All things considered, two duck callers can be much more effective than one.
