Spring and goose hunting are two subjects that up until the last few years were not synonymous with each other. Most waterfowl seasons ended in late January and hunters were forced to wait until the following fall to resume their fanatical obsession.

That all changed several years ago when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) initiated a special hunting season designed to reduce the population of “light” geese. The term “light” goose is used to describe Snow, Blue, or the Ross goose. These species of geese are literally eating themselves out of house and home by their prolific breeding success and their habit of decimating the habitat in their nesting grounds on the tundra of Canada and points farther north. They nest there in huge colonies in June and July and simply devour all the vegetation in sight, causing irreparable harm to the tundra. The fear was unless something drastic was done to significantly reduce the population of these geese; the entire ecosystem could possibly crash, causing profound consequences such as disease and starvation affecting not only light geese but other species as well.

Therefore this special hunting season, called the Conservation Order was instituted with the hope of bringing the population within reasonable expectations. It coincides with the annual spring migration of the geese from the wintering grounds of the southern and Midwestern states back to the tundra. During this special season hunters can use unplugged shotguns, employ electronic callers, and hunt from thirty minutes before sunrise until thirty minutes after sunset. Furthermore, no limits are imposed, with the express purpose being harvesting as many light geese as humanly possible.

Being the civic minded and conscientious hunter that I am, I felt that it would only be right and noble for me to do my part to help save the tundra. Yeah right, I just wanted to kill the heck out of some snow geese and shoot enough shotgun shells to make my shoulder really sore. I made arrangements to hunt with Jon Eaton, an outfitter who hunts in the southeast Missouri area. I arrived in Kennett, Missouri in early February for a five-day hunt. One thing I was quick to discover was February in Missouri and February in Florida are two distinct worlds and vastly different. Way, way different, especially temperature wise. No Bermuda shorts, no trees budding out, no warblers or other song birds singing or doing their spring rituals. We hunted out of layout style blinds, which pretty much means you’re lying flat on your back in a camouflaged canvas “coffin-like” apparatus with your upper body supported somewhat with only your head exposed. Flap doors open to allow shooting when the geese approach.

Successfully decoying snow geese requires huge decoy spreads consisting of several hundred windsocks, and some full body decoys strategically placed around the perimeter of the windsocks. These geese are considered the wariest of all waterfowl, being incredibly cautious, relying on safety in numbers and very difficult to decoy thereby necessitating the big decoy spreads.
Being the incredibly lucky individual that I am (If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all), I arrived right behind a freak snowstorm and the ground was completely frozen the first morning. The hunting was slow for the first couple of days, but we still managed to bag sixteen geese in our party on Monday and Tuesday. The following two days were really great as the weather warmed up to a steamy 35 degrees with a gentle southwesterly breeze, err I mean gale force of 25 mph. Looking at the weather channel the previous night at the motel, I assumed that with the wind direction changing, I could expect warmer conditions as is typical here in northwest Florida. No so in Missouri. It makes absolutely no difference which direction the wind happens to be coming from, it’s still cold as a well digger’s posterior. However, I did succumb to some rare good luck the next two days as the geese moved back in, and the other scheduled hunters cancelled out (fair weather wimps), leaving just myself and the guide to hunt. We had a ball making some difficult shots as well as missing some easy ones. The Ross were my favorite geese, as they were slightly smaller than the snow geese and displayed some amazing acrobatic flying antics, weaving and dipping often times near tree top height. Another trait I liked about them was they were slightly dumber than the snows. Sometimes after unloading into a flock of geese, the Ross would turn right back around and try to land in the decoys. It was an amazing and unbelievable sight to just observe and enjoy the thousands of geese migrating northward as the hours went by. Many times there would be several hundred geese in a formation flying very high when three of four geese would decide our spread looked inviting and they would break away from the others making a slow gradual descent that seemed to take forever, eventually locking up with wings cupped and feet down gliding into the decoys.

We were also treated to the sight of thousands upon thousands of ducks of all varieties as well as other species of geese too. Of course we could only enjoy looking at these as their seasons had ended in January. We were also lucky to see some bald eagles that follow the migration as well, feeding on weak and wounded birds.

Jon and his crew are skilled, knowledgeable hunters and outdoorsmen who will do everything possible to put you on snow geese and make your trip enjoyable. Their website has all the information necessary at www.shomesnowgeese.com. I’m planning to go back next February, with an increased emphasis on cold weather clothing and a really good thermos bottle.