Hunt seagulls instead of sage grouse? Just a thought

My friend E Dub called last week. He wondered if his out-of-state bird license would be cheaper this year if he can’t hunt sage grouse.

I told him I doubted it. Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks isn’t known for lowering prices despite diminishing opportunities. Elk licenses didn’t get any cheaper after the wolves ate all the elk. FWP did, however, eventually add wolves to the list of hunt-able species.

Maybe that’s the best we can hope for, I told him, another bird to hunt.

Then I got a call from Marko Manoukian, the Phillips County extension agent. He said I’d left out one of the major causes of the demise of the sage grouse in a recent column I’d written about the bird. Marko pointed out that while I’d identified disease, loss of habitat, and oil and gas development among the causes for the decline in sage grouse numbers, I’d left out avian predators.

Marko sent me a summary of a study of the bird in south Phillips County from 2001 to 2003 conducted by Brendan Moynahan.

Moynahan reported the majority of nest failure in his study area was due to other birds. He identified gulls, ravens, crows and magpies on his test sites.

A light bulb came on in my head.

Here was an opportunity for what FWP folk are fond of calling a win-win situation. Maybe we won’t be able to hunt sage grouse like before, but how about adding an avian predator to the list -- kind of like what they did with wolves.

Let E Dub hunt seagulls in place of sage grouse. That would satisfy his wing-shooting needs and justify the price of his $110 non-resident license, while at the same time removing a threat to the sage grouse.

It’s an even better deal than the exchange of wolves for elk, which replaced a tasty species with a barely edible one. Gulls, I suspect, probably rival sage grouse as far as table fare goes.

And while sage grouse habitat is vanishing, gull habitat is growing as fast as the Eurasian collared dove population.

Have you visited a landfill lately? Those noble seabirds appear to thrive on our waste, and there’s more of it all the time.

Another plus is that no one’s complaining they don’t see gulls anymore. Their numbers appear to be on the rise.

It’s simply an idea I’m throwing out there.

For free.

Do with it what you want.

I’d just like to see E Dub get his money’s worth.

Parker Heinlein is at

[email protected]