Young guns lead off this weekend

One of the long-standing requirements of this opportunity is that these young gunners must be accompanied by an adult at least 18 years or older at all times while in the field.

These hunts provide a chance for parents, grandparents and other tutors to focus their efforts toward schooling hunters just starting out in safe and effective ways to bird hunt.

Such one-on-one tutelage will ensure that the coming season gets off to a good start.

Here in Whatcom County, pheasant hunting opportunities will focus on two units of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's Whatcom Wildlife Area complex: the Lake Terrell unit and the Alcoa Intalco Works unit.

Both sites are managed by the department for fish and wildlife oriented public recreation and are officially designated as release sites for pen-reared pheasants.

WDFW owns much of the land surrounding Lake Terrell proper, while Alcoa Intalco Works is the owner of roughly a square mile of undeveloped land east of the main plant that the company makes available for public outdoors recreation under a written management agreement with the department.

In addition to pheasants, both units will offer some shooting opportunities for several species of ducks and perhaps a Canada goose or two on Saturday and Sunday.

While the premier public pheasant shooting will be on these stocked sites, young hunters seeking waterfowl as quarry can hunt them on the broader expanses of field and marsh anywhere in the county provided they have permission if those habitats are on private property.

MORE PHEASANTS AVAILABLE

Whatcom Wildlife Area manager Shana Winegeart said both the Terrell and Alcoa Intalco sites will receive pheasants this evening for the weekend hunt. This first plant will be a good crop of robust birds for young hunters, she said.

Both also will be restocked early next week for the special five-day Western Washington seniors (hunters age 65 and older) pheasant opportunity that starts Monday, Sept. 22.

The final allocation of this year's crop of westside pheasants (comprised of both roosters and hens) has been made and the Whatcom Wildlife Area picked up some additional birds in the final divvy, Winegeart said.

She anticipates now being able to scatter 405 pheasants on average each week throughout the season on the designated release sites of Terrell and Alcoa Intalco as well as selected lands owned by BP Cherry Point north of Grandview Road, that are made available by the company for public outdoors recreation under an agreement between it and WDFW.

Winegeart said hunters will see a few tail-less or smallish birds as the season progresses. This year's brood is not quite as vibrant due to the tribulations faced by the department's game farm in Lewis County, which was damaged in a recent flood.

In addition to the destruction of hatchery and rearing pen facilities wrought by the high waters, in the flood's aftermath the damp ground spawned an avian disease.

For a time, managers thought the farm would have to be closed and the ground rehabilitated for a year or more before pheasant production could resume. But with the help of many volunteers, the WDFW staff was able to restore enough capacity to put out this year's crop, though a portion of the population is not as well developed as they might ordinarily be, Winegeart said.

Hunters can expect that the majority of this year' release will be strong birds, however.

For the youth hunt, the daily pheasant bag limit on Western Washington designated release sites is two birds of either sex.

LOCAL DUCKS ARE FIRST QUARRY

While local ring-necks maybe game farm grown, ducks and geese in the sight picture of young hunters this weekend will all be wild, nest-bred critters.

With northern pintail and teal just now beginning to congregate on their way south, the lions-share of mallards currently ensconced here are the product of nesting in local wetlands. The full influx of so-called northern migrant greenheads and other species such as widgeon and gadwall won't occur for another 50 to 70 days.

Besides their sparse numbers, a quickly gained recognition of hazards make these resident ducks hard to get after the first volleys of opening day, which is why new hunters need to be at the top of their decoying, calling or pass-shooting game from day one.

Unlike these other gamebirds, the local or resident crop of Canada geese have already had their introductory baptism of fire during last week's early, six-day resident dark goose season, so they're well on their way to being wary.

Western Washington does not get much in the way of migratory Canada's so with effort focused on them from September onward these year-round dwelling honkers become very hard to decoy. Inexperienced or sloppy hunters are usually hard put to turn them.

Regular season daily bag limits for ducks and geese also apply during this two-day hunt. Details on species restrictions in the daily take and one duck closure can be found in the 2008-09 Migratory Bird Seasons and Regulations pamphlet that is available online at WDFW's Website or from any fishing and hunting license dealer.

BLINDS GO WITH DECOYS

For those new to Lake Terrell waterfowling, hunting over decoy sets on the lake is restricted to the permanent blind structures scattered throughout the spoils islands and along the shores of the southern half of the lake.

The intent of this limitation on waterfowlers is to reduce the competition among decoy spreads to improve each hunting party's chances.

There are more than 18 wooden blinds, so usually, except for opening day, there's not a lot of competition. But these accommodations are available on a first-come, first served basis only.

The same proviso goes for the waterfowl hunting blinds on the south end of Tennant Lake as well.

The northern ends of both lakes are off-limits to all hunting and after the season starts even boat fishing to create an undisturbed environment that will hold ducks nearer to huntable areas.

The department also uses state duck stamp monies to plant and leave standing barley acreage on Terrell uplands to provide food to hold passage ducks.

SOME BIRDS FURTHER AFIELD

While Western Washington carries the promise of delivering good crops of pheasants and waterfowl, bird hunters after still other upland game will have to head over the Cascades for dry-land adapted quarry such as partridge and quail.

Coulee cliff dwelling chukar and wheatfield skulking gray partridge also are fair game that can be had in appropriate habitats throughout central and eastern Washington.

Eastern Washington also has a contingent of designated release sites where pheasants are regularly released as well as an agency-directed program where hunters can seek out private lands posted Feel-Free-To-Hunt in southeastern Washington.

More information and locator maps are available at http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/game/water/ewapheas.htm or on the department's GoHunt interactive mapping Website.

Doug Huddle, the Herald's outdoors correspondent, works for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's Wildlife Program and has written a weekly hunting and fishing column for the Bellingham Herald since 1983 that appears Fridays. E-mail him at doug.huddle@bellinghamherald.com.