Hunting geese can be elusive
The birds weren't flying much, making it difficult for hunters.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
NASON, Ill. -- Protected from the pouring rain by a concrete bunker and disguised from the air by thick, grassy layering, the hunters scanned the overcast sky for hints of snow geese. Recordings of geese calling to one another emanated from one corner of the hideout.
The sounds were so realistic that Polar, a Labrador retriever poised for the hunt, leaped up on two hind legs, searching the sky as if to ask, "Where are they?" Fair question. The early February weather was not cooperative. The birds didn't want to fly. Polar's owner, George Briscoe, calmed the dog.
"Not yet," he said. "Be patient."
Guide Todd Gessner, who supplemented the recorded calls with blows into wooden calls hanging around his neck, called out a warning to the four hunters from the Nashville, Tenn., area readying their shotguns. One goose turned toward the bunker and Gessner, proprietor of Southern Outdoor Recreation Services in nearby Whittington, told his guys to fire at will.
Segments of the portable roof rolled back and the four men stood up. Pop, pop, pop, pop. The goose plummeted to earth. Whose bird? Polar didn't care. The dog was up and out, bounding across the decimated cornfield to mouth the dead goose.
The 21/2-pound goose was brought in from the rain by Polar, a bloody spot on its chest signaling its demise.
A small achievement
The kill represented a minor achievement for the quartet of 40-something friends hunting the private land in this Jefferson County community of about 250 people after experiencing an exasperating duck-hunting season back home.
"We went out nine times and didn't pull the trigger," Pierce said.
Snow-goose hunting in Southern Illinois is not a gimme, but game is plentiful. This year's season is Feb. 1-March 31 for the region. There are so many geese passing through Illinois on their way back to Canada after wintering in southern states that there is no bag limit.
"The population explosion has expanded their search area for food," Illinois Department of Natural Resources waterfowl biologist Ray Marshalla said. "The effect of these huge numbers is that we get complaints from farmers on winter wheat fields."
Gessner said a flock of 5,000 snow geese is capable of turning a winter wheat field into mud in half a day.
Last year, IDNR counted 565,000 snow geese on the peak day of its weekly aerial surveys. Most of the birds come from Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas, Marshalla said. Snow geese are known for pulling their food out by the roots and the large numbers of birds are decimating areas in the Arctic.
"If they denude an area of feed, the next year the young will starve to death," Marshalla said.
Statistics
As recently as 2000, the Illinois snow-goose harvest was about 2,600 birds. In 2005 it was about 44,000. The key is in knowing how to hunt the species. They travel in huge flocks, fly high and often require the deployment of 1,000 decoys to be wooed into a field. The birds are also very particular about which fields they land in.
"We have occasionally had 100,000 flying," said Gessner, who put out 1,800 decoys. "They show up here in early December. There will be a huge migration the first day the temperature gets to 70 and the wind blows hard out of the south."
Perhaps not exactly everywhere because the vicinity of the bunker seemed remarkably flock free. The electronic calls played on, the noise projection enhanced by four speakers in the field.
Birds appeared by the handful in the distance, but they stubbornly resisted the temptation to fly over the site or to lower their flight pattern.
"We just need a couple of left turns out there," Briscoe said.
Getting a little offbeat
Or maybe a more offbeat setup. Briscoe said he has been told about hunters who walked right into a field of snow geese using a flat, cardboard dummy of a cow. Then they drop the cow and shoot. Marshalla said he has heard that approach does fool the birds. However, that was not the modus operandi of this hunt.
Luck changed a bit later. Brown and Mark Sturgis shot at geese that first appeared in the distance as black Xs against the sky. One shot bird tumbled far from the bunker and Brown joined the dog on the prowl. He returned, bird in hand, and alas because he left his rain gear at the car, soaked through his camouflage clothing. He sloshed away to change garb.
When he returned, Brown, who had not carried his shotgun, announced that two snow geese had landed directly behind the bunker, unseen by the hunters.
"They were so close I could have thrown a rock," he said.
Hours passed, the hunters got few chances, but downed five geese. For the most part, the geese adhered to O'Hare International travel attitudes on dismal weather days. They decreed it was too yucky to fly.