Thread: Quackers - 2025 season dates

For @Rock river arms hunter and anyone else interested in the pretty thorough response direct from the DCE:

Hi yeah_na_missed,

Traditionally, a Game bird season opens on the first Saturday in May, which is the date we work towards each year ( in 2020, Covid forced the first-ever delay to the season by three weeks).

Our regions generally finish up any population monitoring in January, and then the Minister for Hunting and Fishing will sign off on approving the season bag limits and season length in late February.

This is so we can get as up-to-date as we can picture the populations and the impacts of any disease outbreaks ( like avian botulism) over the summer so that if populations are under stress, then bag limits can be adjusted before the Minister approves a season.

Population assessment aside, there is also a quirk in the legislation that means a Game Notice ( the legal instrument that says we can have a game bird hunting season) can’t be gazetted unless it is in the calendar year that the season occurs, so it means there is a bunch of work that starts to happen in early January.

Hopefully, this is helpful, but if you have more questions, feel free to reach out.

Every day is a school day. I knew the first Sat of May, so couldn't work out out why they hadn't changed the dates... this explained it pretty well. I was also wondering about any effects of the bird flu outbreaks recently. There ya go.