BRING BACK THE FLOCK

[Backwards bleed]

This is long and I am sorry but I love these birds!! I share your same concerns.
I have watched and hunted giant canadas for 50 yrs now. In the early years we felt blessed just to see one flock fly over us per season. In those days your name was in the local news paper if you actually harvested one. By the 80s we began to harvest them quite frequently. By the 90s we were surprised if we did not get our limit.
Fast forward to today..The numbers are way down in my area just as they are in your area. Many others that live here are oblivious to what has happened. Most of those people have not watched geese since the early days of the restoration. Those people are too young to have watched the greatest success story in the history of wildlife management. They have no idea how many geese we use to have compared to today. Boy they are good at disrespect for a bird that should be respected. They never saw the population go from the transplant stage to the populations we had in the 90s. They will spout on the internet how there are geese everywhere. They actually have no clue what a cloud of birds is and no idea about the amount of both ducks and geese that there use to be.
I survey the state owned lands where the geese breed in Eastern Ne.. I have been doing this for over 30yrs. There are up to ten times less geese in some of those areas than there was during the mid 90s to the early 2000's. I have been watching another state that has a restrictive goose limit, closed areas to hunting and nest boxes everywhere. Their local population has exploded and expanded during the same time period that ours has been crashing. Doesn't take a genius to see that managing your locals wisely works wonders.
It makes me sick. The slaughter needs to stop.
We use to have goose nesting boxes on every pond as well. All of the state controlled land that was suitable in my part of the state had nest platforms.. The game and parks actually cared about maintaining them and expanding the flock. Every conservation minded person did their part to expand the flock.. Now nest boxes are slim to none.
One other factor is the molt migration that non breeding giant canadas do before they molt. They can't help it. It is in all giant canada's DNA strait from the parent flock in Rochester. I am sick of our non breeding geese going north before molt, just to get slaughtered by b.s. conservation action seasons that deem them as an agricultural pest. Imo those seasons are nothing more than a money maker for the states that have them. No goose is hurting corn, beans or harvested winter wheat at that time of the year.. it's total b.s! They are not an agricultural pest. Those seasons that were a slaughter when first enacted have now become way less productive as the years roll by.
Time for everyone to wake up and smell the coffee before the populations slide back to the levels of the early 80s. If this ridiculous disrespect and mis management continues, the goose hunting as we know it will surely be a thing of the past.

 

[Backwards bleed]

Sounds good until you realize many states and communities are doing everything they can to knock back resident populations. Egg oiling, depredation permits, special hunts etc. Going to be hard to get any waterfowl orgs to back it.

I liked your post because that is exactly part of the problem. I do not like whats going on!

 

[GUNNERX2]

Tennessee started a resident Canada goose program 40 or so years ago. With the exception of the northwest part of the state that still got some migrants, the rest of the state was closed to Canada goose hunting. The closure was for 5 years or so and when we did get a Canada goose season, it was for the last 10 days of duck season and the limit was 1. Special tags were issued and harvested birds had to be immediately tagged. That went on for several years before tagging was no longer required but the limit was still 1 but more days were allowed. As time went on, we were allowed more birds in the daily limit and the season extended. Now, the stupid things are everywhere and creating problems. Just about every farm pond and storm water retention pond has a flock. We get a 15 day season the 1st part of September and the daily limit is 5. When the regular season opens the limit is 3. With the exception of the Sept season, I find that the resident birds are harder to hunt than migrants. They will change their pattern on a whim and leave you scratching your head when you were expecting a slam dunk.

 

[Backwards bleed]

Tennessee started a resident Canada goose program 40 or so years ago. With the exception of the northwest part of the state that still got some migrants, the rest of the state was closed to Canada goose hunting. The closure was for 5 years or so and when we did get a Canada goose season, it was for the last 10 days of duck season and the limit was 1. Special tags were issued and harvested birds had to be immediately tagged. That went on for several years before tagging was no longer required but the limit was still 1 but more days were allowed. As time went on, we were allowed more birds in the daily limit and the season extended. Now, the stupid things are everywhere and creating problems. Just about every farm pond and storm water retention pond has a flock. We get a 15 day season the 1st part of September and the daily limit is 5. When the regular season opens the limit is 3. With the exception of the Sept season, I find that the resident birds are harder to hunt than migrants. They will change their pattern on a whim and leave you scratching your head when you were expecting a slam dunk.

Sounds like you are on the same path we were on. We were less restrictive in Nebraska as far as the length of the seasons. The late seasons still ended by the second week of Jan. Our limits went from 1 to 2 to 3 to 5. The early season didn't have a huge impact on our resident flock. There were alot killed for a week until they figured it out. The guys that knew how to blow short reeds hammered them hard.. At the time we had our early seasons there were not alot of proficient short reed guys yet. The problem is that there are alot more guys that know what they are doing than there was in the 90s. T.G calls changed the whole game in the mid 90s. The hunters didn't figure short reeds out for a while. The short reed's popularity as well as more hunters becoming proficient callers coincided with the higher limits. Imo.. Our locals have never learned to avoid all the excellent callers that hide well and scout. That along with egg oiling, molt goose hunts in the dakotas, no more state refuges, and way less nesting structures is slowly taking its toll.
I wish our state would go back to a 3 goose limit. Everyone should be happy with 3 geese anyway.
The neighboring state that I talked about with the exploding goose population has small limits. The early season limit is two and late season of 3.
We are to the point now where every pond that should have geese may not have them on it in the spring. Many ponds that had multiple pairs have none. I have to think if they dropped the limit to two for the first part of the season that it would help save some locals. I wish I could go back in time when every puddle had geese nesting on it. You can consider yourself lucky to have that problem in Tennessee.

 

[2WIDGN]

I take care of 92 nesting structures yearly. Some of which were put up many years ago by the state of Illinois. About 15 years ago they stopped cleaning and strawing them. Better things to do? I have 70+ done and ready for nesting. Working 3pm-3am this week has put a damper on my progress. $25 in straw, some fuel, and a little elbow grease for nearly 400 goslings each year is a fair trade.

 

[Backwards bleed]

Heck yes way to go on the nesting structures! If everyone did that it would help tremendously. It seems like nobody wants the geese on their private ponds now. It is unlawful to place one on Nebraska state property without permission. And there is very few on their properties now. I use to have some of them up and down the river where I use to live. Ran them all in in the go-devil to fill them up with hay. Every bit helps.

 

[gotmyally]

Aren't they SUPPOSED to migrate? And make their nests in the tundra, where egg oiling isn't an issue? Seems like creating more residents is part of the problem, not the solution.

 

[Fozzbear]

Mudduk - Like you I'm no biologist but after living and hunting in the general area for 50 yrs there are allot of factors but here is my opinion. Horicon use to be a pretty intensely managed area with specific zones that you had to apply for. Quite a few years back they did away with the zones which increased the hunting pressure somewhat which in turn dispersed the migrating birds a bit further every fall. As the communities around the Horicon area have expanded and created all these nice retention ponds along with the ag land which was encircled by the residential expansion has created the perfect mini refuges spread out all over the state. As the resident population of birds exploded in the communities throughout the state the migrating birds started to cue in on these same area's the resident flocks use and over time this has spread them out and modified there migration patterns and wintering habits. Overall I believe the explosion of resident geese and climate to a certain degree has played a big part in altering the birds habits. I can't prove it but I believe a good number of the migrating birds have learned to hang with the residents all winter long around here. 50 yrs ago if you did not head to Horicon to hunt honkers up here you'd never see one unless they were migrating overhead on there way to Horseshoe and Crab Orchard. Fast forward to today and you can not swing a dead cat anywhere in this state without hitting a goose.

 

[mrmallerd]

For anything significant to happen, Canada Goose season would need to be closed, south of I-80 for a minimum of ten years. At 69 years old, I would give it a thumbs up, however, the chances of Southern Illinois being annexed by Missouri is higher.

 

[ARHHH4]

For anything significant to happen, Canada Goose season would need to be closed, south of I-80 for a minimum of ten years. At 69 years old, I would give it a thumbs up, however, the chances of Southern Illinois being annexed by Missouri is higher.

I’d rather be annexed away from Illinois and never shoot a goose again!