Hoopengarner on Outdoors
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Sept. 1 marks start of bird season, fall
September's the sportsmen month. Thirty days that stir the soul and quicken the pulse.
For many, the Sept. 1 start of mourning dove and forest grouse, as well as early eastside archery deer hunts, black bear on Sept. 5 and early Canada goose on Sept. 9-14, are among the highlights of the month that ushers in fall.
For others, fishing for bass, trout, salmon and steelhead and other species makes this a month without compare.
Then, of course, there are our dogs - the true harbingers of fall.
I'm not sure we'll ever know how a sleeping dog can detect the difference between the sound of a neighbor's pickup door slamming and yours, let alone the start of bird season - but they do.
However, I may have tipped them off rummaging about the garage for last year's leftover 712's and shaking the dirt and feathers out of my dove hunting vest.
And, though dove hunting is only a passing shot in the fall bird hunting lineup, it's a rite of September I've marked for years. However, I'm lucky if I can knock down a third of the 10-bird daily bag limit of these of fleet-winged flyers during a late afternoon's outing.
But it's not only doves that I seek, because there's more to September than dates on a calendar.
Perhaps it's those cool mornings afield, followed by deliciously warm afternoons when the sun seems unwilling to yield the day and dusk brings air heavy with dew, where earthy smells swirl about as if caught in an eddy of unseen air currents until a twilight chill breaks the reverie.
Or, the time spent sitting on a stool at the fringe of a cut wheat field, a shotgun across my lap, watching my dog snuffle the dirt and wondering what images are racing through her mind. And then, to look into eyes like polished agates that stare to where doves - almost iridescent in the sunlight - pass through cerulean skies as they have for centuries.
Dove hunting, indeed, is the stuff of fall.
But in Eastern Washington - even if the weather cooperates - dove hunting is a short-lived affair, lasting only 15 days.
While fair numbers of doves reside year-round in the Yakima Valley, the Columbia Basin and the lower reaches of the Snake River and its tributaries, hunters depend upon doves migrating through the region for any serious shooting.
Doves are most often found in farmland areas where harvested grainfields, orchards and water are close by, with a few tall trees at hand for evening roosts. And, luckily, Grant, Yakima and Franklin counties are among the tops statewide in the harvest of these migratory visitors.
To hunt doves, hunters must have a small game hunting license and a state waterfowl stamp.
Forest grouse, of which three native species can be hunted - blue, ruffed and spruce - is the longest of the upland bird hunting seasons, running from Sept. 1-Dec. 31. And forest grouse can be hunted with either a big game or small game license.
Tom Keegan, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife's upland game manager in Olympia, said the state does not survey forest grouse numbers, as they do for chukar, pheasant and quail, but rely on information gleaned from hunter surveys and hunter donated wing samples.
However, Keegan said the harvest of forest grouse is down about 50 percent, which could indicate tough nesting conditions for birds whose habitat ranges from open sagebrush areas to tamarack and Englemann spruce regions of high mountain ranges. It's likely, too, that fewer hunters may be pursuing these elusive forest phantoms.
Keegan said the present danger of fire may be the biggest concern for September sportsmen, who should check out ahead fire restrictions in any forested areas they plan to visit.
Early eastside archers who will be hunting deer beginning Sept. 1 and black bear hunters who take to the woods Sept. 5, should also be aware of the fire danger.
Most deer populations in Washington look good, thanks largely to several mild winters, biologists report.
In Southeastern Washington, the Almota unit in southern Whitman County should be good for mule deer bucks.
In the Blue Mountains, good populations of mule and white-tailed deer can be found along the Snake River breaks and foothills, but deer numbers in the mountains, biologists report, have declined significantly over the past five years.
Black bear numbers are high in the Blues, but hunting can be tough because of the scarcity of natural forage areas. Wild berry and fruit production is a key factor in the bears feeding habits, so spend time now scouting old orchards, huckleberry and blackberry patches and hawthorn and plum thickets.
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