In pursuit of Urban Canada Geese
Goose numbers are on the rise in every flyway. Gunning opportunities
in established regions just keep improving. Goose number and their changing
migration patterns have spawned a new type of Canada goose. Small numbers of
migrating geese have wintered over and taken up permanent residence on bodies of
urban water. These birds, urban geese, do not migrate north in the spring.
They are found in city parks, on golf courses, and school athletic fields. They
occupy any urban area that offers resting water and access to feeding areas.
Once considered cute by landowners, these birds have become full-scale pests. A flock of geese can do considerable damage to the area they inhabit. The management of goose droppings has become a major problem for landowners that have large flocks of geese on their land. Many cities have started live trapping programs to cull geese off their golf courses and parks. Seattle is one such city. Birds are trapped around the Ballard Locks and released in eastern Washington and Idaho. Olympia has passed a city ordinance that prohibits the feeding of geese on Capital Lake in an effort to reduce the density of goose dropping in and around the lake.
Many a goose man has gazed upon these large flocks of urban birds with
a gleam in his eye and wondered how to get after these birds. Make no mistake
about it, these birds can be hunted. Like all other methods of hunting the
Canada goose, hunting urban geese revolves around access and scouting.
Urban sprawl and established city limits have an impact on where these birds can be hunted. Hunters need to ensure that they are not violating any city firearm regulations when hunting these geese. Many of the geese feed in urban fringe areas; areas that appear to be agricultural, but are, in fact, inside established city limits.
Locate an area near the city that offers resting water and feed. The feed need not be traditional cropland or stubble. Sod farms and dairy farms are very popular with geese in many urban regions. The key hunter task is to locate the areas that the geese are using to feed.
A river valley adjacent to an urban area that holds large numbers of geese is very productive. River valleys offer all the elements that the geese need: water, pasture, cropland and access. The criticality of these elements will vary by region. For instance, here in Washington state, dairy farms tend to offer the best gunning. A fellow goose hunter bagged 58 birds last year without leaving King county. Seattle is the hub of this county, and it is very densely populated. He hunted dairy pasture in the Snoqualmie River Valley; my brother is a very savvy goose man.
Scout the river valleys and mark the location of feeding flocks during the summer months. These birds are not leaving and they will use the same fields with predictability. These fields will provide action during the early parts of the season. Focus your scouting effort on feeding areas. Urban geese tend to return to urban water when resting, and these areas cannot be hunted.
Many areas that have hunt able populations of urban geese lack any serious goose hunting culture. Hunters have watched the goose populations grow while continuing to hunt the more traditional areas. This lack of culture ensures that large tracts of land are not tied up in lease. It means that the access can still be gained by knocking on a landowner's door and asking for permission to hunt. In the near term, it also means that the competition for the available geese will not be as keen as it is in other areas.
Urban geese are not particularly hard to hunt. Three dozen decoys are generally enough to work these birds on a regular basis. The silhouette decoy is ideal for this type of hunting. Lightweight and compact, they can be transported (man-packed) to the hunting site with a minimum of difficulty. They are also a cost-effective alternative to the big super decoys that are so popular now. They were, however, hard to find for many years.
I have long been a fan of the silhouette decoy. As a young Nimrod I was exposed to them, and have always been a fan. In an effort to reduce the cost of my decoy set, I learned how to make them at home. After several models were tested, a 3/8s plywood model put a lot of geese in the freezer. The blocks were not lightweight and they were bulky. However, they could be made for about $35 a dozen. The appearance of the new generation of high technology silhouettes has done away with the need to carry 80 pounds of decoys to the pit.
Three dozen goose decoys are more than enough to work any group of urban birds. There is often a need to place floating decoys adjacent to the field spread in flooded pasture, and the Feather Flex works very well. The Outlaws decoys bring the full body dekes to life and the whole spread has a three-dimensional look about it. 2 dozen Outlaw silhouettes and 18 Feather-Flex weigh less than 12 pounds. The spread can be set up in about 15 minutes. Hunters can mix and match any decoy with the Outlaw and create a life like set that will simply suck these urban geese out of the sky.
Urban geese respond well to the call. There are no secrets to calling
them. I use a flute for long and middle range work and a reed call for close
work. I have seen a skilled caller make urban geese dance with a tube call
also. Unlike hunting geese in heavily hunted areas, you need not be concerned
that the birds have heard a steady diet of flute calls, or reed calls, or any
calling at all, for that matter. On most days, the decoy set will do the work.
But then, what is goose hunting if you cannot call. The key to calling urban
geese, like all goose calling, is watching the birds for their reaction to the
call.
Most flocks of urban geese are not large.
Do not expect to have work flocks of over a hundred birds. On the contrary,
most urban flocks resemble family groups of 8 to 15 birds. These figures are
not absolute. Larger groups of geese will be encountered during the peak of the
migration, but they will be the exception. Hunting the urban goose lacks the
grandeur of big flocks and limits every day, but it is productive. In many
ways, hunting urban geese is like managing quail coveys. The birds will
generally be in a given area and they will behave in a fairly predicable manner.
Hunting urban geese is very much like
hunting geese anywhere. Goose behavior and the nature of the land being hunted
are the key differences. Urban geese have a local agenda and are not concerned
with sustaining themselves for the rest of the migration. They lack the refuge
mentality and are not hammered in every field. They are not dumb; they simply
lack 3000 miles of being hunted. Work these birds in the same way you would
hunt geese on opening morning, before they figure out the season has opened.
Membership meeting information
Board meetings are the third Tuesday of the month at 7:00pm.
Membership meetings are the fourth Tuesday at 7:30pm. With Guest Speaker To discuss farm issues and conservation efforts.
All Meetings are held at the VFW Hall, 133 E. Lakeside St.(off John Nolen drive). in Madison.