What a different creature Canada geese have become, with so many of them becoming non-migrators and just staying where they are, raising goslings on every little farm pond where cattle graze on permanent pasture. Just think about it…. Not all that long ago, we never saw a goose in the Ozarks in the spring and summer and few in the fall and winter. You seldom saw them, as they’d pass over in long strings, making beautiful music as the nip in the air and the falling leaves told you that winter wasn’t far away.
Floating down the river in November and December of the 1960’s as a kid with my dad, hunting mallards and wood ducks from our old johnboat, if we saw a few Canada geese on the river, and actually had a chance to bring one home, it was a never to be forgotten experience. Now, out hunting turkeys in the spring, it would be so easy to fill the freezer with Canada’s. And while they aren’t as good to eat as wild gobblers; a smoked goose, or a roasted goose, certainly isn’t to be made light of. It’s the goose-feather plucking that makes everyone think Colonel Sander’s fried chicken is the best route to take for Sunday dinner. But this fall I am going to get a goose or two for Thanksgiving and smoke it in my store-bought smoker.
What a difference there is in the Canada goose today and the ones I saw as a boy, only fifty-some years ago. But then again, what a difference there is in this whole world today. The creeks so full of water, in which I swam throughout the summer, are dry today by the time July and August come around. The woodlots along the river bottoms have been bulldozed and are now fields of green grass. Where there were a dozen old cows there are now great herds.
But not long ago I saw a Canada goose with her nest in a hollow sycamore limb jutting out over the river 20 feet above the water. I suppose that is evolution. Geese don’t nest in hollow trees, but she did. It was smart of her. Other geese which nest on the ground each spring often lose their eggs when the river rises with lots of rain. A strain of Canada geese are only 8- to 10-pounds in weight, but another strain, known as giant Canadas, are found nesting in bluffs in the Ozarks. They may weigh from 14 to 18 pounds.
I love to hunt geese; one of my most memorable hunts being the last one, two years ago in a grain field in Ontario. It was a morning when the overpopulation of geese we have today was evident. They came in by the dozens for three hours. I was with a friend of mine who is Lake of the Woods guide and we brought in a limit of five apiece. Thirty years ago we hunted Canadas and snow geese each fall in Manitoba. In all instances of goose hunting we would lie flat on our backs in a field with decoys spread where they wanted to feed. I spent much of that time using my camera instead of my shotgun. If you would like to see some of those photos, go to the website www. larrydablemontoutdoors.
In about three weeks we will finish the winter/Christmas issue of the Lightning’ Ridge Outdoor Journal, a magazine with great stories about hunting, fishing, conservation and nature. To get your copy send a check for 8 dollars to LROJ, P.O. Box 22, Bolivar, Mo 65613. To use your credit card call Gloria Jean at 417 777 5227.
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