"We're hearing people are seeing good numbers of them,'' said Ted Dick, the DNR's ruffed grouse coordinator. He said ruffed grouse hunters have reported flushing decent numbers of woodcock last weekend.

"I think it should be good,'' Dick said. Minnesota's population, based on spring surveys, were up 21 percent from last year.

An estimated 12,000 hunters pursued 'timberdoodles' in 2009, bagging about 35,000.

WISCONSIN HUNTING

Wisconsin's woodcock season also opens Saturday, and some 14,000 hunters are expected to pursue them. Woodcock numbers are expected to be similar to recent years.

Wisconsin's duck season in the northern zone also opens Saturday. DNR officials are predicting good things.

"Wisconsin waterfowlers should have a good hunting season," said Kent Van Horn, the DNR's migratory game bird ecologist. "Overall, continental populations of waterfowl game species are healthy and abundant."

Many of the ducks harvested in Wisconsin come from birds that breed in the state's wetlands. The four most abundant ducks in Wisconsin's fall hunting harvest are mallards, wood ducks, green-winged teal and blue-winged teal, Van Horn said.

The duck hunt in the northern zone opens at 9 a.m. Sept. 25 and continues through Nov. 23. Other than on opening day, the hunt begins a half hour before sunrise. The southern zone duck season opens at 9 a.m. on Oct. 2, with a split season that runs through Oct. 10 and then closes and reopens Oct. 16 through Dec. 16.

Hunters in the Badger State can see the DNR's entire hunting season forecast for deer, bear, upland game, furbearers and waterfowl at http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/wildlife/HUNT/forecast.pdf.

Minnesota's woodcock season opens Saturday, and officials are optimistic it could be a good one.