Sand hill crane hunting in Alberta

[Pixel Shooter]

Keep Fingers crossed. We may see our first season this fall. Exciting!!!!proposed in southern Alberta. Would be nice to see the whole province but walk before we run

https://www.canada.ca/en/environment...37A6YYkg#toc13

[JDK71]

I have a few at my place but not interested in hunting them

[ganderblaster]

I sure hope so with the cranes! I never thought I would be disappointed about an increase in legal hunting opportunity, but raising the pintail limit to 8 per day while many states are dropping to one seems a little extreme. The poor things fly first and get pounded to heck enough as it is IMO. Also disappointed not to see an increase in the white front goose limit. I’m no scientist but I see no shortage of white fronts. In fact according to their pop estimate I see nearly a 1/4 of the flyway population in one morning scout at peak season😂. That’s within a half hour scout and meanwhile during that time they are seeing white fronts already as far south as Missouri. My guess is within the next 10 years if they don’t raise the daily bag limits they will have a speck conservation season as well lol.

[aulrich]

Ribeye of the sky!

It would be fun just to get 1 and see if that name is true or not

[Smoky buck]

I would have to try it at least once just to see what I think of cranes

[tikka250]

That would be so awesome!
We don't get a big flight of em in my area but I would scout long and hard for a hunt or 2 for those eagle eyed delicious birds.

[kevinhits]

Originally Posted by aulrich

Ribeye of the sky!

It would be fun just to get 1 and see if that name is true or not

Have family in Saskatchewan that hunts them and brought some for us to try.....Done in a smoker with wrapped bacon...Was so delicious but it definately is a required taste and texture...LOL

[Grizzly Adams]

Originally Posted by JDK71

I have a few at my place but not interested in hunting them

Supposedly "Rib eye of the Sky", but I'm a doubter.

Grizz

[Osky]

No don't doubt. I've hunted and eaten a bunch of them from Sask. You do not want the very grey birds, the adults. Shoot the birds with as much brown color to them as possible, the juveniles.
Done rare/medium rare they are wonderful tablefare. Yes the rib eye in the sky.

Osky

[glen moa]

They just look odd to me and not like something I’d like to eat. I’d shoot them and try them though.

[tikka250]

Originally Posted by glen moa

They just look odd to me and not like something I’d like to eat. I’d shoot them and try them though.

I thought the same but after hunting and eating em in sask I'm a beleiver. Though there is definitely a difference between a young bird and an old one

[Chuck_Wagon]

Originally Posted by Pixel Shooter

Keep Fingers crossed. We may see our first season this fall.

Alberta has had a previous sandhill crane hunting season.
It was open for one fall then closed again the next year.
1998?, somewhere in that time frame.

[Greatwest]

Having lived in Sask for all but the last 1 1/2 years of my life I have hunted many Sandhill Crane. They are a blast they are such big bird and it seems there giant wings only flap every 30 seconds when they fly. We used to pass shoot them lots as they come over tree rows. Nothing like seeing one of them do the helicopter all the way to the ground. But we also made some silouette decoys out of plywood and set up in fields for them as well. And yes as someone else said you try to pick out the young brown coloured birds with feathers on head still we called them peepers because they made a peep sound totally different then the adult sounds. They are the best eating. My dad always joked about putting a chunk of crane breast meat in the same frying pan as a rock when the crane was done throw it in the garbage and eat the rock it will be more tender. Lol. Our season also got shutdown in our area lots as soon as the protected Whooping Cranes moved into the area they shutdown the sandhill crane season so there was no risk of any Whoopers getting shot.

[nimrod]

It's simple, for the powers to be, put a satellite tracking on the whooping crane, then when you want to go hunt, sign in a website, if the whopping crane is 50 miles around you no shooting cranes that day,

[trapperdodge]

Great news. Cranes are fun to hunt and to eat.

Nice to see the pintail bag limit increase. Waterfowl hunters are in decline on both sides of the border. Canada should get to shoot it's allocation.
Now let's get a swan season. The Americans are shooting our birds because we have no season.

[trapperdodge]

Now the province needs to cut the zones by 90% and quit playing the mico manage game

[ganderblaster]

Cutting zones would be a mess. I can only imagine the chaos with 90 outfitters to a zone lol. It’s chaos enough with 4. Thank God the ones around where I hunt have their unwritten zones within the legal zones and try not to overlap if possible.

[threeforthree]

If It goes thru, order ur decoys ASAP they sell out fast.. we just upgraded to 8doz last month. Amazing Bird to hunt. They have great eye sight.

[35 whelen]

Originally Posted by trapperdodge

Great news. Cranes are fun to hunt and to eat.

Nice to see the pintail bag limit increase. Waterfowl hunters are in decline on both sides of the border. Canada should get to shoot it's allocation.
Now let's get a swan season. The Americans are shooting our birds because we have no season.

So because one country is shooting swans we should shoot more.

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

[fisher Gord]

we had a crane season bill signed by the minister under Prentice. never made it to the assembly for approval before the election call. this is fed's response to provincial requests for the most part. Agree we have had good populations of speck's, I will ask AFGA hunt chair to put the bag increase to Agmag,and a resolution next year. you can send a letter to the minister now to start an increase speck bag discussion. No tundra swan season for us

[colvert]

Originally Posted by trapperdodge

Great news. Cranes are fun to hunt and to eat.

Nice to see the pintail bag limit increase. Waterfowl hunters are in decline on both sides of the border. Canada should get to shoot it's allocation.
Now let's get a swan season. The Americans are shooting our birds because we have no season.

I don't agree, there are plenty of geese around, I hunt them. Why do people want to shot more species such as swans and cranes for fun? why not robins woodpeckers and chickadees? the Americans are no roles models!

[tikka250]

Originally Posted by colvert

I don't agree, there are plenty of geese around, I hunt them. Why do people want to shot more species such as swans and cranes for fun? why not robins woodpeckers and chickadees? the Americans are no roles models!

Woah now who said crane hunting was just for fun. As said before cranes are delicious table fare and would be one of my main reasons for pursuing them as a game bird. As for swans I have never tried it but near as I can tell it's just a big long necked goose and I would cook and treat it as such if I ever got the chance to hunt one. Just because it's fun to hunt does not mean eating them is not largely on our mind.

[35 whelen]

Originally Posted by trapperdodge

Great news. Cranes are fun to hunt and to eat.

Nice to see the pintail bag limit increase. Waterfowl hunters are in decline on both sides of the border. Canada should get to shoot it's allocation.
Now let's get a swan season. The Americans are shooting our birds because we have no season.

Just wondering why they are our birds they spend almost as much time in their country as they do ours.

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[trapperdodge]

Presently we don't shot any swans.

There is a continental allocation. Canada is entitled to a share of the allocation. If we chose not to hunt swans our allocation is divided up in jurisdictions that do (eg. Utah Montana etc). The same formula is used on all waterfowl.

[walking buffalo]

Originally Posted by colvert

I don't agree, there are plenty of geese around, I hunt them. Why do people want to shot more species such as swans and cranes for fun? why not robins woodpeckers and chickadees? the Americans are no roles models!

A thread with comments that people want to try eating them, others saying that they are great eating, and this is what you come up with?

We warned you not to boil bleach.

We absolutely should already have a Sandhill crane and Tundra swan hunt in Alberta.
Populations of both species are doing great and are well managed.
The only conservation concern is of overpopulation.

The issue in establishing these hunts in Alberta is Trumpeter Swan and Whooping Crane populations are a concern , not so for Tundra swans or Sandhill cranes.
Now that we have good knowledge of migration corridors and dates for all these species, we can establish hunting seasons for Sandhills and Tundras and protect Whoopers and Trumpeters.

Finally, this is close at hand for Sandhill cranes.
If Alberta pushes for a Tundra Swan season, we will get one.


I have to ask,
Which continent would you choose as a hunting role model?


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35 whelen,

These are "Our" birds, co-managed as North American populations.

As stated above, the reason we don't already have a hunting season for Tundra swans and Sandhill cranes in Alberta is concerns of accidental mortality of Trumpeter swans and Whooping cranes. This concern can be well addressed by managing hunting zones and dates.

[Dewey Cox]

Someone once told me we can't shoot swans because they're "the queen's bird", and out of respect for her, we have no season.
Has anyone ever heard that before? Is that complete bs, or is there/was there something to it?

[trapperdodge]

Montana has both Trumpeter and Tundra swans. The east zone has only Tundra swans while the west zone has both. If you shoot a Trumpeter they don't like it but you are not charged. Alberta could do the same thing.

[Smoky buck]

Originally Posted by colvert

I don't agree, there are plenty of geese around, I hunt them. Why do people want to shot more species such as swans and cranes for fun? why not robins woodpeckers and chickadees? the Americans are no roles models!

Because just like every form of game bird they are made of meat and likely have their own flavour. If they are in healthy numbers and make a good meal like other game birds I see no issues. If I did not like the taste I would not shoot another.

What makes these species special in Alberta compared to other game birds? Cranes and swans are hunted and eaten elsewhere

[ganderblaster]

I have hunting friends from Nevada that hunt swans there. They say the swans are excellent table fare.

[Pikebreath]

Originally Posted by Chuck_Wagon

Alberta has had a previous sandhill crane hunting season.
It was open for one fall then closed again the next year.
1998?, somewhere in that time frame.

Where did you get that from? I have hunted waterfowl every year in Alberta since the mid 60's and can never recall there ever being a crane season.