COCKBURN ISLAND—The first week of the annual gun deer hunt on Cockburn Island is being reported as the best hunters have seen in the past few years.
“The hunt is much better, the best it has been in the past four years,” stated Ian Anderson, a director on the Cockburn Island Conservation Club (CICC), this past Sunday. “I don’t have the official results but there had been at least 20 deer (harvested) by Wednesday evening, on the first week of the hunt (which will continue this week as well). This number is almost the total number of deer harvested over the two weeks of the hunt last year.” He noted as well there were some big deer taken, as evidenced by one deer harvested weighing in at 243 pounds (dressed).
“We have seen a real good improvement in the deer numbers,” said Mr. Anderson. He noted, however, “the actual hunter numbers are down a little, there were possibly as many as 95 hunters during the first week of the hunt. There were a total of 115 hunters last year.”
“The success rate reported during the first week was much better than compared to last year,” said Mr. Anderson. “Everyone reported seeing a lot more deer than last year. I know John (Diebolt) and I saw 33 deer in the first week of the hunt.
As part of the annual two week deer hunt on Cockburn Island, a meeting is held of the CICC and hunters during the first week of the hunt. “There are no big issues to report this year, the club is trying to do as much habitat improvements as we can on private lands,” said Mr. Anderson. “We used equipment to work up some different properties and stimulate new growth of grass. Now we are seeing new grass in areas there hasn’t been any for 75 years. This is very important particularly in the spring when the deer need it (to feed on).”
The CICC is also undertaking a temperature-monitoring cold water streams for the Nature Conservancy of Canada project. “Data loggers, which are small devices, are being used to measure water temperatures daily for three months in some of the local streams,” explained Mr. Anderson. “We are undertaking this project for the NCC, and possible future stocking of speckled trout and which streams would be suitable.”
