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If you haven't seen these white birds on their annual migration, you are missing one of nature's truly wondrous sights. Most Illinois hunters are familiar with skeins of Canada geese crisscrossing the sky as they rise from their watery roosts and raucously flap off across the countryside to their feeding grounds. But as spectacular as this aerial show may be, it doesn't hold a candle to the daily feeding frenzy the snow goose flocks put on.
Unlike their big cousins, snow geese do not leave their roost in formations of family groups, or small flocks. Instead, they roar aloft in what can only be described as a conglomeration, followed by another conglomeration, followed by another - well, you get the idea. Thousands upon thousands of the glistening white creatures simply erupt from the water, each screaming excitedly at the dawning of a new day, ravenous for the abundant waste grain to be found in surrounding fields.
Nutritious particles of wheat, rye, barley and oats nourish the birds on the prairies of Canada and the Dakotas. As the migration flows south, millions of acres of harvested corn and bean fields provide forage for the hungry flocks. On the wintering grounds of Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas, sprawling rice fields accommodate the geese until they begin the return trip to their far north nesting grounds.
The snow geese and blue geese that make their way up and down the center of North America each year nest mainly along the western shore of Hudson Bay, and on Southampton and Baffin islands. Known to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists as the Mid-Continent Population (MCP), this flock, until recently, flew only in the Central Flyway. Waterfowl hunters in Illinois rarely saw white geese. But things are changing, and today, your chance of encountering snow geese in Illinois is astonishingly high, and in many cases, even predictable. MCP snow goose distribution expanded into the Land of Lincoln as the result of an unprecedented population explosion.
Back in the early 1970s, the nation's farmers embraced the concept of no-till farming practices. Whereas they once put the plow to their fields immediately following the harvest, now the land lay untouched. An unintended consequence of this practice was tons of waste grain that formerly had been turned under the earth, was now available to wildlife in general, and foraging geese in particular. A feast awaited traveling migrants from the northern nesting grounds to the southern wintering areas.
With the stress of finding day-to-day sustenance removed from the snow goose's life, the birds flourished. They were healthier, stronger, lived longer and brought off hatches of goslings with great regularity. And, their young also lived the good life and soon were producing more geese to swell the ranks of the MCP.
Recent figures clearly depict the result of the habitat changes we have described. In 1970, the MCP was estimated at a fairly stable 600,000 birds. In spring of 2002, just 32 years later, that count had skyrocketed to 2,700,000 snow geese and blue geese, which represents nearly a five-fold increase. In spite of slight decreases in the population from 1999-2001, last spring's survey revealed a 15 percent increase in just one year. And, the end is not in sight.
At first glance, anyone with a hunting license would surmise this was great news, but that isn't really the case. While the goose population has been growing at a tremendous clip, available habitat has remained constant, and due to the fragile nature of this sub-Arctic land, is in great peril
The land around Hudson Bay is mostly tundra, a few feet of soil covering a layer of permanently frozen earth. Given an incredibly short growing season, plants may take years to recover if they are removed or killed. As goose nest density increases, the plant life the birds rely on is becoming scarce, and it can take over 15 years to renew itself.
As a result, the geese are forced to travel farther and farther from their nest to feed. This isn't such a threat to the adults, because they can fly to more abundant food sources, but the goslings must walk, miles in some cases, to find nourishment for their rapidly growing bodies. Many can't make it, and others fall victim to predators. Still, their numbers grow.
As this situation grows more serious, biologists fear an epidemic of avian disease will decimate the flock. Hunters then would see prospects for snow goose hunting fall from the dizzying heights now enjoyed to a dismal state of affairs that could even bring radical curtailment, or even a closure, to snow goose hunting seasons.
Some other control methods have been discussed, but to date none seem likely to be implemented. Alternative controls range from allowing Indians and Eskimos to resume spring egg collecting, thus re-instituting a recently closed practice. Destruction of nests by USFWS personnel was considered but the nesting area is too large and remote for this to be effective. And the least likely option of all is dropping napalm on the nesting geese.
To date, waterfowl managers have relied on hunting to reduce the MCP flock, but in spite of liberal bag limits, long seasons and removal of many hunting restrictions, the flock increased 15 percent in the last year alone. As a responsible, dedicated goose hunter, it is your duty to get out and shoot some snow geese, for their own well-being.
There is some question as to whether the blue goose is a permanent color phase of the snow goose, or a bird in transition from juvenile gray to adult white. In my opinion, the blue goose is a snow goose in disguise. Whatever the relationship, underneath the feathers they are the same bird. They live, feed and fly together, and will respond to a hunter's tactics in precisely the same way. Young-of-the-year snow geese are identified by their light gray feathers, which will molt during their first summer to be replaced by brilliant white adult plumage accentuated by distinctive black wing tips. Hunting the snow goose in in the Dakotas and western Iowa, Missouri andIllinois, or is not an easy proposition.
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