Outdoor Notes : State Waterfowl Hunting Regulations to Be Set Today

Final waterfowl hunting regulations for 1986-87 will be adopted when the state Fish and Game Commission meets today in San Francisco.

California waterfowl regulations must fall within the federal framework provided by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The framework generally is based on breeding conditions in Canada, where most waterfowl in the Pacific Flyway originate.

Federal rules this year allow up to 79 days of hunting, the same as last year, with limits essentially the same as last year: A daily bag limit of five ducks, including no more than four mallards, one hen; four pintails, one hen; two canvasbacks, two redheads, or one canvasback and one redhead.

The limit of four mallards or pintails is down from five a year ago.

The commission is also scheduled to consider litigation challenging the federal ban of lead shot in major waterfowl hunting areas of Northern California.

You’ve heard of carrying coals to Newcastle. How about flying pelicans to the seashore?

A couple of misdirected--and dehydrated--pelicans were found recently in the desert near Tucson. They were taken to Tucson’s Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, where they were nursed back to health.

The museum then sent the errant seabirds to Phoenix, where the Arizona Game and Fish Department arranged to have them flown to a rehabilitation facility at San Diego’s Sea World.

It was theorized that an eastward moving storm blew the birds off course and into the desert. On the other hand, they might just have been trying a change of scenery on vacation.

Deer hunters have not been overwhelming the state Dept. of Fish and Game in quest of tags. In fact, a department computer report indicated that, as of Monday, about 124,000 deer tags were left for B, D and X zones and special hunts in the state. At this time last year, only about 113,000 tags were left.

Karen Madrigal, DFG license branch staff services analyst, said that tags were available for all but the D14 zone in the San Bernardino Mountains, which was closed Aug. 20 after all 3,000 tags had been issued.

Two of 21 special hunts remain to be filled, the San Diego archery hunt for deer of either sex and the Monterey archery hunt for bucks.

Briefly

Pheasant hunters are reminded that federal permits are required daily for the controlled hunting areas of Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge and the California portions of the Lower Klamath National Refuge. . . . Bud Bristow, director of the Arizona Game and Fish Department and a 25-year department veteran, has announced his resignation, effective Jan. 2. . . . Charlie Reed, a former masonry contractor from Broken Bow, Okla., fishing for the first time in the Masters tournament sponsored by the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society, surprised the field at Chattanooga, Tenn., last week by winning the $50,000 top prize with a three-day catch of 23 pounds 9 ounces. Reed, 51, was the oldest fisherman in the tournament. . . . New managers have been named at two national wildlife refuges in California--Roger Johnson at Tule Lake and Rick Coleman at the San Francisco Bay complex at Fremont. . . . Missouri artist Al Agnew’s acrylic painting of a West Coast steelhead trout turning to attack a lure-fly in the murky depths of a winter river has been selected as the winner of the 1987 California wild-trout stamp art competition. The painting will be reproduced on California Trout’s voluntary stamp next year.