Published: September 06, 2009 08:16 pm      

Starting gun has sounded

You can go crow hunting when that season opens in mid-August, but only on the appropriate days, of course.

You can snipe at groundhogs all summer long.

You can shoot sporting clays.

You can punch paper.

You can do all these things, but when you pop the first primer on a shotgun shell on Sept. 1, whether it be directed toward a Canada goose or a mourning dove, it gets real. A lot of good stuff is coming your way during the months of September, October, November and December.

I like buying my Maryland hunting license in August. That transaction with the nice ladies at the Pershing Street Department of Natural Resources’ license office in what I call the old post office, but is now the old district court building, is almost as neat as smelling the first shotgun shell smoke of the year.

By the way, because the Allegany County District Court has moved to new digs next door, you no longer have to face the possibility of a strip search by security guards when entering to purchase a hunting or fishing license or to register your boat. I wish I could tell you that parking has improved, but it hasn’t.

When I buy that hunting license, it is a mental trigger that sends me back to the time when old, old U.S. Route 40 was the only way to get to the top of Polish Mountain to hunt gray squirrels. By the way, do you realize that squirrel season opened yesterday? Do you care? Most folks don’t.

It still takes a little getting used to, the fact that the bushytail season is legal a full month earlier than it used to be. I suppose there are some hunters knocking off tree rodents in early September, but I don’t hear from them. Another thing I don’t hear is shotgun blasts at that time of the year indicating that squirrel hunters are out there. Still, I’m glad the season has expanded. As I have written over and over, more hunting opportunity is always good.

Nothing solid here, but I am hearing from a lot of hunters that they are seeing a lot of deer including a lot of bucks. Hunters around here don’t bubble over too often about the number of deer available, so maybe this is a good sign indeed. We’ll see. Won’t we.

I’ve been doing a little scouting. I am seeing ample acorns on the ground, but 80 percent of them are rotten; nothing inside but a brown pulp.

The low humidity and cooler temperatures that arrived in the area, appropriately on Sept. 1, do a lot to get hunters in the mood, as if they are ever out of it.

Keep safety at the front of your thoughts as we move into and enjoy our 2009 hunting seasons.

Contact Outdoor Editor Michael A. Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com.