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This post will be primarily of interest to Jersey birders. Great Swamp NWR and Lord Stirling Park usually have a series of closures throughout the fall. The closures are to keep other potential visitors safe while hunters cull some of the white-tailed deer that roam the adjacent preserves.
Unfortunately for birders, the dates and places of hunting closures, as well as regulations governing the season, can be confusing, even if they are readily findable. Since I was at Lord Stirling Park today, I am posting the list of closures for that site here. Hunting season has ended at Great Swamp NWR, but there are still some dates left at Lord Stirling Park for 2009.
I don't object to hunting on public lands, even in places where I like to visit. However, I wish information about when and where hunts are taking place were more readily available in a form more understandable to non-hunters. Since the state does not seem interested in communicating this to non-hunters, perhaps there is room for a birding or hiking organization to fill the gap.
