Women who are interested in learning more about the outdoors, in the environment of an adult summer camp, may want to look into Maine’s Becoming an Outdoors Woman program.

The program gives women the chance to try a variety of outdoor activities under the supervision of experienced teachers and guides.

The BOW Introductory Skills Weekend is scheduled for Sept. 17-19 at Camp Bishopwood, which is on Megunticook Lake in Hope. The camp fee is $190, which covers food, accommodations, equipment, and educational handouts.

Course offerings include basic fishing skills, canoeing, hiking, backpacking and trip planning, outdoor survival, marksmanship, sea kayaking, turkey calling, and leave-no-trace camping.

Map-and-compass skills, campfire cuisine, fly tying, fly fishing, bow hunting, outdoor photography and landscaping with native plants will also be covered.

A complete Hunter Safety Certification course is also available.

The brochure and registration form are posted at www.mefishwildlife.com, and are also available from BOW coordinator Dorcas Miller. You can reach Miller at 582-5600, by mail at 76 Williams Road, Chelsea, 04330, or at dorcasmiller@gwi.net.

Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis.

House wins legislative derby

Members of the House fished their way to victory recently in the Governor’s Cup Charity Bass Tournament on Cobbossee Lake.

The victorious House tea mm donated their $1,000 prize to the Northern New England Chapter of the ALS Association in memory of Joe Mayo, the former clerk of the House who passed away in 2002 after a battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

The eighth annual Governor’s Cup tournament drew nearly 20 senators, representatives, legislative staffers and the governor. The catch, measure and release tourney pitted members of the House against members of the Senate.

Duck numbers decline

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released the findings from its 2004 May duck population and habitat surveys, and Ducks Unlimited reports the survey shows a decline in duck populations.

This year’s population has declined to 32.2 million birds, 11 percent below last year’s count, DU said in a news release.

That total is 3 percent lower than the long-term average, and just above the 31.2 million count of two years ago.

DU Executive Vice President Don Young said the numbers “pretty well reflect feedback that we have been receiving all spring from our staff stationed across North America’s breeding areas. Extremely dry winter conditions left the soil so parched that almost all of the early spring snowmelt was soaked up and did not run off to fill the basins for the arrival of the birds.”

One of the most important elements in duck-breeding success is the amount of water present on the breeding grounds, DU said. When the survey was conducted in May, pond counts had declined 29 percent from last year in prairie Canada, and 16 prairie U.S.

To submit an item for publication in the Outdoor Notebook, send e-mail to jholyoke@bangordailynews.net, fax to 990-8092 or mail information to Outdoor Notebook, Bangor Daily News, PO Box 1329, Bangor, Maine, 04402-1329.