'No, they're not.' I said, 'They're geese.'

As the geese came closer, we could make out the raspy barks of the lesser Canadas. The birds answered our deeper Canada calls and circled a couple of times before dropping the landing gear and passing over the hunters on the far end of the spread.

'Take 'em!' I yelled when the birds were directly overhead. A volley of shots rang out, and four of the geese cartwheeled to the ground. The lucky hunters sprung from their blinds and took off on a sprint to secure their birds.

That's when Kevin Pomorski came stumbling across the field from where his goose had fallen yelling, 'I got a baby goose! I got a baby goose!' It wasn't a baby goose at all, just a very small version of a lesser Canada goose. The lessers are becoming a more common sight in Michigan each season.

We quickly scrambled back into our blinds, as the sound of geese was again in the air. This time, big giant Canadas were coming from several directions. All were on a beeline heading for the field. The sky became a milling mass of geese before a volley of shots brought four more geese to the ground. The scene was repeated a few minutes later. Within an hour and a half, we had our eight-man limit of birds. You just can't get any better goose hunting than that!

A Good Year All Around, This Season and Last
Many Michigan waterfowlers report they, too, experienced great gunning last season.

'It was a good year all around,' confirmed wildlife biologist Earl Flegler of the MDNR's wildlife office in East Lansing. 'We had the best early season in five years, and the regular season was OK. The geese were widely dispersed and abundant for the January late-season opener. We had very few complaints on the seasons or season dates.'

Central Michigan doesn't have an abundance of water, but where you find ponds, marshes and larger river systems, geese thrive. And the one thing central Michigan does have is agriculture, so there is plenty for the geese to eat and many opportunities for hunters.

For more information on goose-hunting opportunities in central Michigan, contact the MDNR Rose Lake Wildlife Office at (517) 373-9358.

Southeast Michigan is a stronghold for resident goose populations and offers plenty of hunting opportunities.

'There were more geese last year than compared to the last three years,' claimed wildlife biologist Joe Robison. 'We had very good goose production and having the goose opener coincide with the duck opener helped duck numbers build with little disturbance prior to the opener. Hunting pressure was very, very high last year.'

Robison said southeast Michigan goose hunters willing to do their homework will find plenty of opportunities this season.

'The Waterloo Recreation Area has some goose-hunting opportunities, and the fields west of Ann Arbor can be very good,' Robison reported. 'Just about anywhere you find water can be good -- places like the lower Detroit River around Celeron and Stony Islands.'

Myriad lakes in Oakland County have always made that area a goose nirvana, but competition for hunting space is intense.

For more details on goose-hunting opportunities in southeast Michigan, contact the Southeast Management Unit of the MDNR at (248) 359-9040.