Another lake invasion; high hopes for hunting

By now Minnesotans are becoming accustomed to hearing the unwelcome news that another body of water in the state has been invaded by a harmful foreign plant

- o - or animal, an "exotic species, " as they are known to science.

The latest to earn that dist inction is Lake Le Homme Dieu near Alexan- dria, one of West Central Minnesota's more popular fishing and recreational lakes and connected to several others in a well-known chain, including Lakes Carlos and Darling. Lake Le Homme Dieu is the tenth Minnesota lake where zebra mussels have been found, in addition to the Mississippi, St. Croix and Zumbro rivers.

Zebra mussels are tiny clam-like creatures that came to this country in the ballast water of ships traveling from Eastern Europe and Russia to Great Lakes ports in the 1980s. Pleasure boaters and anglers unknowingly brought the creatures to inland lakes and rivers as stowaways on their boats and trailers, where they established themselves and from there have been transported elsewhere.

The finger nail-size, cream and brown-striped creatures attach themselves in masses to any solid underwater surface. They do damage on a large scale by clogging mechanisms through which water flows, such as water intakes of boats and municipal, industrial and residential water intakes, as well. Scraping the cement like masses of shells from boat hulls, docks and water toys and being cut by broken mussel shells, are among the unpleasant realities where they've gained a foothold.

But to an angler or an ecologist, that's not the only bad news. Zebra mussels upset the food chain, consuming important microorganisms, called plankton. The water becomes clearer, but that's because the freefl oating plankton needed to support the food pyramid of aquatic insects and ultimately forage fish and game fish, are reduced. In lakes where zebra mussels are well established, you'll see more of the lake bottom and fewer fish.

Alexandria seems a long way from Lake Mille Lacs, one of the other infested lakes and from the Mississippi and the St. Croix. But in this age of great angler and boater mobility, invasive species like zebra mussels, or the Eurasian watermilfoil now choking the shallows of many Minnesota lakes, are as close as the next boat or trailer that arrives from an infected lake without being properly drained and cleaned, or allowed to dry out thoroughly to kill any aquatic hitchhikers.

One would like to think that the spread of these and other harmful invasive species to other Minnesota waters is preventable. But every time another lake "casualty" is announced it gets a little harder to be optimistic.

Upland hunters can

be optimistic

If you're an upland hunter who tramps the woodlands for grouse and woodcock in autumn, you have reason for optimism for the season ahead. For two weeks in a row wildlife biologists have issued positive reports on the status of game birds dear to these hunters' hearts. Recently it was woodcock; and before that it was ruffed grouse. The woodcock prediction came from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The ruffed grouse estimate came from the Minnesota Depart - ment of Natural Resources (DNR).

The truth, of course, is that most of the hunters who fall into this category are actually grouse hunters, who may harvest a few woodcock as targets of opportunity where the two birds' habitat preferences overlap. There are relatively few hunters who could be called woodcock specialists and who actually set out to hunt specifically for them.

I consider myself a hybrid of the two. When I owned an English setter, a pointing dog breed, I would sometimes hunt specifically for woodcock, which tend to be found in the low-lying woodland edges close to swamps or marshes. I now hunt with a golden retriever and focus more on grouse, but expect to encounter the occasional woodcock. When proper weather arrives, typically in late October, flights of migrating woodcock may descend on the local covers where I hunt. At those times I will slip shells with smaller shot into my shotgun and look for evidence that a woodcock flight is in.

The news released declared that woodcock numbers in Minnesota and in the central U.S. in general, are up slightly from 2008; and numbers were higher in 2008 than 2007. Thanks to an early spring, nesting woodcock got a head start this year and there was no significant wintry weather to cause mortality.

Ruffed grouse census numbers recently released by the Minnesota DNR were even more encouraging. The drumming counts that estimate the number of breeding birds were up more than 40 percent from 2008, after several years of modest increases. The northern portions of the state showed the greatest increases, while central and southeast regions were similar to last year, the DNR reported.

Another reason DNR biologists are optimistic is that the period of greatest risk for losing juvenile birds is at an end. Cold wet weather in June can wipe out broods of grouse chicks and this was not a year when that undesirable phenomenon occurred. Biologists expect good survival of young grouse, something that is a "must" for an exceptional hunting season.

While a bird in the bag is worth two in the bush and it's a gamble to lay bets now on this fall's success, the odds of a bumper harvest look better this year than they have for quite some time.