Wildlife and Parks Commission to set seasons Aug. 6; similar to last year
PRATT -- At an Aug. 6 meeting in Medicine Lodge, the Kansas Wildlife and Parks Commission approved seasons for late-migrating waterfowl. Following frameworks allowed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and recommendations from Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) staff, the upcoming 2009-2010 late waterfowl seasons will allow 74 days of duck hunting in the Low Plains Zone and 97 days in the High Plains.

Duck regulations and season dates for the fall and winter of 2009-2010 are as follow.

Bag limits, possession limits, shooting hours

• Five ducks is the daily bag limit, which may include no more than two redheads, two scaup, three wood ducks, and one duck from the following group -- one pintail, one canvasback, one hen mallard, one mottled duck (except for the first five days of the season, in any zone, when mottled ducks may not be taken). The daily bag limit for coots is 15, and a daily bag limit for mergansers is five, which may include no more than two hooded mergansers. The coot and merganser seasons will run concurrent with the regular duck seasons.
• Possession limits for all species (ducks, coots, and mergansers) are double the daily bag.
• Shooting hours for all species are one-half hour before sunrise to sunset.

Duck Season Dates

• High Plains Zone Youth -- Oct. 3-4.
• High Plains Zone (West of U.S. 283) -- first segment, Oct. 10-Jan. 5, 2010; second segment, Jan. 23-31, 2010.
• Early Zone Youth -- Oct. 3-4.
• Early Zone -- first segment, Oct. 10-Dec. 6; second segment, Dec. 19-Jan. 3, 2010.
• Late Zone Youth -- Oct. 24-25.
• Late Zone -- first segment, Oct. 31-Jan. 3, 2010; second segment, Jan. 23-31, 2010.

(For details on zone boundaries, see the 2009 Kansas Hunting and Furharvesting Regulations Summary, available Sept. 1 at most KDWP offices and license vendors.)

During the youth seasons, youth must be 15 years old or younger and accompanied by an adult, who cannot hunt. The supervising adult must be at least 18 years old, and the adult does not have to have a hunting license or stamps required of waterfowl hunters.

For Canada geese, season segments are Oct. 31-Nov. 8 and Nov. 11-Feb. 14, with a daily bag limit of three. For white-fronted geese, the season segments are Oct. 31-Nov. 8; Nov. 11-Jan. 3, 2010; and Feb. 6-14, 2010, with a daily bag limit of two. The light goose season segments are Oct. 31-Nov. 8 and Nov. 11-Feb. 14, 2010, with a daily bag limit of 20. (Under a federal Light Goose Conservation Order, light geese may also be taken from Feb. 15-April 30, with no bag or possession limits.)

All waterfowl possession limits are twice the daily bag limit, except for light geese, which have no possession limit.

For falconers, federal frameworks allow no extended season in the High Plains Zone. In both the Early and Late zones, the season runs Feb. 24-March 10, 2010. Because of the 107-day hunting limit imposed by the federal Migratory Bird Treaty, and the increased length of the September teal season from nine to 16 days, there are seven fewer days left for falconers in the Early and Late zones, and none available in the High Plains Zone.

For more details, visit the KDWP website, www.kdwp.state.ks.us, or phone 620-672-5911.
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