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andhunt with him....he's the "other" Snipe hunter in Washington.....at least till Lonnie showed up to crowd us all out...

Lonnie, best Snipe hunting is on the Eastside....at least till it freezes....Gloyd Seeps is packed with them in October all the way up till the first HARD freeze....and any of the wasteways will have birds if there is any sheet water.....

I saw Worths post about opening late....I'd hate to see that cause the Snipe gunning is far better in October, (and this year all the way into middle November), on the Eastside than it ever is on the Westside......FAR BETTER......now if they would close it T'giving to end of January and then give us mid-Feb to mid-March that would be sweet for sure...

I'll be up your way before too long for Turkey, maybe we can meet for a beer....

Mark..

some of both in the October birds.

The areas where I hunt Snipe are like nothing you would ever expect a Snipe to be in and if all you ever did was look at it from the roads you might think Pheasants but definately not Snipe as its high desert Sage Brush. What you don't see from the roads is that its also on the down basin side of major agriculture complex that is heavily irrigated and what is referred to "waste water" is traveling downslope just under the ground becasue fo the rocky substrata....

When it hits a coulee or a lava damn it flows out over the surface and makes the most incredible sheet water habitat that you can imagine, Snipe heaven even if you are in the desert...

In June when I'm in the area there are lots of displaying adults and through the summer those birds, and their hatchlings use the area. I start scouting for Ducks over that way in mid September and there will be a fair number of birds in the area so lets call those "residents"...Our Quail season opens the first of October and if I hunt that area on the opener there will be more birds than a couple of weeks previously but I'm not sure that these are local birds staging in prime habitat. Duck season opens the second weekend of October and I always open in that area on some favored walkin ponds because that allows me to shoot ducks in the a.m. and a mixed bag of Snipe and Quail, and Pheasants a week later when it opens, and by that time there will be many more birds than there was even a week to ten days earlier....

My opinion is that by mid-October, assuming the weather is warm both in Washington and to the north of us, is that we are seeing "resident State birds" moving into staging areas augmented by a small number of migrant birds that are also on the move....this is supported by the fact that until the first freeze most of the birds are really fat while the occassional bird will be thin with no fat reserves. To me that means birds that have had time to feed-residents, and birds that have not- migrants...

First freeze and that is reversed. The fat birds will be mostly gone and the majority will have little to no fat reserves. New arrivals and they show that by their flushing habits letting me get much closer than the erlier birds that have been hunted several times by now..Good days, just before sunset I've watched high groups of Snipe, coming from the North, falling into the marsh and since there are so few Snipe hunters I don't "think" that these are birds disturbed on other areas and pushed to this one, so I'm calling those migrants....

Irrigation water is "turned off" in this basin the tird week of October but if it doesnt' freeze up we'll have flowing water for another month, less and less each hunt but still enough to keep the birds happy and in place. Ice on the flats in the South would be a kiss of death.....here it just means they'll be hunkered down in thicker cover waiting for it to warm up a little. Most years its all over by the last week of October but this past year I was shooting Snipe, plus Quail and the occassional Pheasant, on that flat all the way to Thanksgiving.....

Not your "normal" Snipe season in Washington for sure....

On the "extended season" using a five day a week opening I "think" you'll have some issues.....the Feds set a maximum number of days PLUS they set a "must be closed by" and "can't open before" date....within those "open" and "close" dates the States can adjust as long as they don't exceed maximum number of days.....I "think" its 107 days on Snipe as that is the "maximum number of days" unless you are dealing with "nuisance" populations. I'll leave the math to you to figure out what a five day week would allow as far as an opener and a close but I'd "bet" you'll be fighting a real uphill battle trying for a five day a week restriction.



Mark