Waterfowl ID course

[jaycee]

How about a waterfowl I.D. course before you apply for your migratory bird stamp ?.
No course , no permit.
It does not have to be included or taken with your hunter safety training course , as not all hunters will want to hunt waterfowl.

[Fenelon]

How many hours long is the standard hunting cert course? Maybe it's too short, and a species recog. module needs to be added. For comparison, I'm a fur course instructor, and the Ontario trapping cert course is a minimum of 40 hours in the classroom, plus one full day in the field, plus a practical field test. My courses have always taken 10 weeks to deliver (one 4 hour class per week). Maybe the hunt course is past due for some "beefing"?

[drakemallard12]

How about a waterfowl I.D. course before you apply for your migratory bird stamp ?.
No course , no permit.
It does not have to be included or taken with your hunter safety training course , as not all hunters will want to hunt waterfowl.

Exactly, something along those lines, i agree that the course should only be for people wanting to hunt waterfowl not for the guy taking his hunter ed course so he can shoot grouse, deer, and moose as mentioned earlier in the thread by another member.

[Guelph1981]

This a dumb idea. Mandatory courses gets thrown around alot on this site. Ive even seen posts suggesting there should be courses to get a fishing license! Do your homework! If you want to hunt waterfowl there are plenty of books and videos out there to study and learn what's what. They do cover duck identification during ohep. Yeah i know they do not go overly in depth on the subject but it is covered. Ohep does not go into great amounts of detail on any subject. Touches on the basics and the rest is up to the individual. This is why they encourage new hunters to hunt with a mentor so they can learn what to do and what not to shoot. I would agree if there was an optional course available but definitely not a mandatory one.

[TurkeyRookie]

This has been discussed in the past, (adding more ID to the hunting course), was also talked about with the introduction of Wild turkey, and Elk, about adding it all in. The main argument has always been, that the course is first and foremost a safety course, not a wildlife ID course.

Not saying right or wrong, just saying that's been the stance and why the early mentioned haven't been added.

The other caviat of course, is, is this needed? in the sense of, people who want to take the time, to ID their birds, and be sure of what they are targeting, are probably already doing this, already educating themselves and practicing this.

To the guys that "don't really care" sure they may memorise enough to pass a test, and then probably never look at it again and just go on doing what they have been doing, and blasting at whatever comes in, would it actually change anything?

[Gadwall]

How about a waterfowl I.D. course before you apply for your migratory bird stamp ?.
No course , no permit.
It does not have to be included or taken with your hunter safety training course , as not all hunters will want to hunt waterfowl.

And what about those who buy the stamp each year who are not hunters ... not only hunters buy the stamp, some are just stamp collectors and others are making the donation to where the money goes from the sales ... silly idea.

I also think this would be a dumb idea ... are we not tired of being regulated to death ... treated like idiots who cannot learn unless we are made to, and really, those who do not want to learn will not remember anyway and still do what they want.

An optional course to be available is fine ... in fact, if there were to be an optional migratory bird identification course, I may be interested in helping to develop it and teach it.

[greatwhite]

Be something to build an identification on line web course and allow it to be used for free.

Biggest issue I can see us what an online course would contain. Could actually be broke down into several sections.

Big Game
Turkey
Small Game (rabbits, squirrel, grouse etc.)
waterfowl

Identification of each species from male, female etc. Detailed pictures followed on feeding habits, food, range

[Guelph1981]

Say i want to get into hunting ducks and I know absolutely nothing. First thing im going to do is find out what i can not hunt for and google it to see pictures of head and wing patterns. Then im going to go on youtube and look for videos on these birds in flight so i know exactly what to look for when they are flying in and what they sound like. Then im going to research the same way the ducks that are legal but i dont want to eat. Then im going to do the same for the ducks i want to go for. I should know sounds, colour schemes and flight patterns before i ever hit the field. The information is out there people just need to show some initiative and seek it out for themselves. There will always be people that dont give a damn and just blast everything course or no course. If someone were to have a website with all this info in one spot it would do well. Also include dressing. And field dressing, skinning and quartering for big game. Maybe butchering as well. And small game too. How to clean rabbits and squirrels and skin coyotes etc. Could do upland game too. I would much rather see some type of hunting database like this in place over more mandatory courses.

[bardern]

what gadwall said. seriously I will be d***** if I am going to take another course.

[northernympher]

In my opinion this issue stems from a much larger problem that today's society faces. My thought is that if someone wants to hunt waterfowl, or anything else, they need to take efforts to ensure they are familiar with the laws and standards set out for the protection of the very sport they are taking part in. Today many people (in particular the younger generations) dont want to take that effort and feel like they should just have everything handed out to them. They give no thought to anything besides themselves and the present. We shouldn't have to implement a waterfowl course because people should go to the effort to be responsible but only a few actually do (I have no doubt that the majority of members on this site are responsible). Just my opinion.