Delayed harvest, wet roads hamper hunters

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BY JOE DUGGAN / Lincoln Journal Star

A perfect fall day — cool, sunny, light breezes — greeted hunters on the opening day of the upland bird season, but weather still hampered hunter success.

Conservation officers across the state reported soggy fields, impassable roads and lots of standing corn thanks to last week’s heavy rains and snow.

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission law enforcement supervisors said Saturday that hunting pressure mostly looked similar to or a little down from last year. But they also reported from 90 percent to 100 percent of corn crops standing because of wet fields, which undoubtedly influenced some hunters to stay in bed or go to the football game Saturday.

Before the season, commission biologists predicted a pheasant population similar to last year, with a mixed outlook for quail depending upon the area.

Hunters who managed to get out Saturday generally reported seeing pheasants and quail. Some hunters reported their three-bird limits by mid-morning.

No hunting-related accidents had been reported Saturday morning. Conservation officers did write citations for offenses such as loaded shotguns in vehicles, hunting on private land without permission, hunting without a permit and some waterfowl hunters who were over bag limits.

Here are reports from law enforcement supervisors based on hunter checks Saturday morning:

Southeast

Supervisor Duane Arp said hunting pressure was about the same as last year, hunters reported seeing good numbers of birds, and their success was fair. His officers worked an area that included Otoe, Nemaha, Richardson, Pawnee Johnson and Lancaster counties.

Minimum maintenance roads were in poor condition due to rain. Corn harvest is between 15 percent and 20 percent complete.

Pheasant numbers appeared similar to last year, with quail numbers noticeably higher. Hunters were averaging just a little less than a bird each.

“The season should extend itself well because hunters are saying they’re seeing birds,” he said.

South-Central

Supervisor Jerry Pecha said in 33 years as a conservation officer, he has never seen so much water in the fall on public wetlands in the Rainwater Basin.

But that may have worked in the favor of hunters, forcing pheasants onto the uplands. One of his officers who checked 56 hunters on public land in Clay and Adams counties found 87 pheasants in the bag. One party of seven hunters had limited out after walking just one public wildlife management area.

“They’re taking quite a few quail out there, too,” Pecha said.

The presence of unharvested corn in central counties north of the Platte River seemed to be holding down success. But hunters were still reporting seeing good numbers of birds in those counties, too.

Northeast

Supervisor Tom Zimmer said hunting pressure appeared to be down in the region. Most of his reports came from Pierce, Wayne and Antelope counties, where hunters were averaging about one bird each.

It was the same old story: The corn harvest is behind schedule.

“It’s not that they’re not killing some birds and finding some birds, it’s just a little tougher with all this corn in,” he said.

Southwest

Supervisor Roger Thompson said some of the best pheasant reports came from Perkins, Hitchcock, Chase and Furnas counties. He estimated that hunters were averaging about half a bird across the region.

Thompson said that nearly all of the corn is still standing in the region, so he thinks hunting will improve as the season progresses.

West

Supervisor Jim Zimmerman said pressure appeared to be down significantly with noticeably fewer nonresidents in the region.

“Everybody’s seeing birds, but they got out of the roost this morning and went right into the standing corn, and they’re pretty tough to hunt,” he said.

Box Butte and Sheridan counties generated some of the best reports of hunter success.

Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@journalstar.com.