ERIE, Pa. (AP) - Wooden boxes, measuring no more than 6-by-12 feet, have been going up on Presque Isle State Park as they do every year around this time.
During duck hunting season, the boxes are blinds where men, women and youths, age 12 and older, wait with shotguns for canvasbacks, redheads, bluebills, buffleheads and other varieties of the waterfowl. The Erie-based Northwest Pennsylvania Duck Hunters Association coordinates the boxes owned by hunters. An annual drawing determines who gets the 73 duck blind spots on Presque Isle.
“We manage and regulate the duck blinds on the park with the cooperation of (the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources),” association President Pat Tarasovitch said. “We work as partners.”
Hunters begin putting applications in for duck blinds in September. Tarasovitch said the association received 578 this time, which continued a recent upward trend.
“We pull out 73 names,” said Tarasovitch, who wasn’t one of them this year.
The 73 pick their blinds a week later. They are responsible for putting up their structures, which have sides, a roof and usually an inside bench or seat facing the water to keep users out of the weather and conceal them from ducks. Tarasovitch said blinds have to be taken down within two weeks after hunting ends, which will be Jan. 2 this season.
Blind locations start at the head of the peninsula and extend along Presque Isle Bay as well as around Marina Lake, Misery Bay and Thompson Bay. Tarasovitch said those bodies of water are feeding areas for migrating ducks.
Shawn Feiock, a Millcreek Township resident who has been hunting at Presque Isle for 25 years, said it’s a privilege to be allowed to hunt there.
Feiock, who is also an association director, said the peninsula provides an opportunity to see ducks that aren’t native to this region.
“It’s always a challenge to get a new species,” said Feiock, who remains on the lookout for a drake canvasback.
His son, 12-year-old Jacob, is now old enough to legally hunt and recently shot a wood duck at a special event for youths.
“My youngest son got his first duck,” Feiock said. “He was quite thrilled.”
An older son, 14-year-old Jackson, also hunts for ducks, which the family eats.
Feiock said duck hunting at the peninsula is a good time to spend with his sons. Before they were old enough to hunt, they blew the duck calls, he said.
They use a 15-year-old blind, painted in camouflage and with a built-in bench big enough for four or five, that is along Misery Bay this season.
Many blinds are easily visible to Presque Isle visitors or even set up along its Multi-Purpose Trail.
Tarasovitch said visitors are sometimes surprised to hear shots coming from the boxes and have called park rangers to report gunfire. He said a good way to identify a blind that is occupied by a hunter is to look for duck decoys in the water in front of it.
“It’s nothing to be afraid of because the guys are shooting over the water,” he said.
The duck hunters use shotguns with maybe 300 small pellets per shell, Tarasovitch said. They won’t go all the way across the water to the other shore, he said.
Diving ducks like canvasbacks, redheads, bluebills and buffleheads are among the most common birds bagged, Tarasovitch said. Puddle ducks also are taken at the peninsula, he said.
Dogs retrieve some birds after they’ve been shot. Other hunters go themselves in canoes or kayaks.
“If the water’s shallow they wear waders and walk out and retrieve the duck,” Tarasovitch said.
Hunters can use the duck blinds Mondays through Saturdays from 30 minutes before sunrise until sunset, Tarasovitch said. Feiock said that around dawn and dusk are usually good hunting times.
“We’ll be out every Saturday of the season at least,” he said.
Non-owners can use a blind if the owner isn’t there, but must vacate if the owner arrives, Tarasovitch said. That way people like him can still hunt for ducks at the peninsula. He’s been hunting there more than 50 years.
Those who don’t hunt also are welcome to sit in blinds, and people used some of them the past two years to observe the popular snowy owls visiting Presque Isle.
But Tarasovitch said there’s been a problem with people leaving trash.
“We just ask them, if you sit in a duck blind and look at it, take your litter with you,” he said.
___
Online:
https://bit.ly/1LRkLmS
___
Information from: Erie Times-News, https://www.goerie.com
Please read our comment policy before commenting.