STRICTLY BUSINESS; GOOSE CENSUS IS A CHORE

MAKANDA, Ill. -- Don Woolard counted about 200 geese at Ballard County Wildlife Refuge in west Kentucky, near Wickliffe.

The two-engine Cessna 337A roared as it turned eastward toward Horseshoe Lake, near the Olive Branch area in Southern Illinois.

Woolard and a second spotter, huddled into the right side of the plane, peered out the window as the pilot made another pass around the Horseshoe Lake Wildlife Refuge in Alexander County.

Woolard spotted two small flocks of geese, a couple hundred in each.

Woolard, a waterfowl biologist with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, has the intricate chore of keeping count of Canada geese in Southern Illinois and Ballard County in Western Kentucky.

"We fly every other week," said Woolard, who has been counting geese the past 14 years. Woolard is one of a pool of five or six men who have census-taking duties.

"Sometimes we use a couple of counters," said Woolard.

At this time of year, one counter can take care of the work. There were less than 2,000 geese involved in the latest count, conducted on election day in Southern Illinois. The numbers:

* About 200 at Union County Refuge.

* 500 at Horseshoe Lake Refuge.

* 600 at Crab Orchard Refuge.

* 359 in the Rend Lake area.

* 150 at Ballard County (Ky.) refuge.

* A few geese scattered here and there.

During peak counts, two and three counters will take part in the census.

"I can remember as many as 360,000 geese in the Horseshoe Lake area," said Woolard. "It gets a little tough then."

During a peak count two years ago -- with more than 360,000 at Horseshoe, another 300,000 at Crab Orchard Refuge in Williamson and Jackson counties; 100,000 at Union Refuge, and about 100,000 at Ballard. Throw in counts form Rend Lake, Mermet Lake and other small water impoundments like the Cache River, Campbell Pond, Carlyle Lake and Burning Star Mine the total topped the 1 million mark.

Counting geese is no trivial undertaking, said Woolard.

The aerial goose census, conducted every other week from November through the second weekend of February, provides biologists with vital information, noted Woolard.

"Besides providing a service to goose hunters and goose watchers, it helps us determine how much food we need at the various refuges."

Biologists calculate "goose use days" from the census figure to determine acreage of crops to be planted on the refuges in the spring. "Utilizing that formula, a 185,000 count at the Horseshoe Lake Refuge would translate into almost 1.3 million goose use days' during the week," said Woolard.

The goose count fluctuates from week to week. During the first few counts in November and December 1993, the count at Horseshoe ranged between 10,000 and 12,000.

The census figures are also used to determine maximum harvest figures, nesting and travel trends.

Woolard explained: "For instance, in recent years fewer geese have been attracted to the established refuges, and more geese have been holding in areas like Campbell Pond, Carlyle Lake, and Cache River area."

The weekly aerial census has been conducted since 1956, and has indicated that "geese are arriving later in Southern Illinois and leaving earlier each year," said Woolard.

This year the goose season in the four-county area of Alexander, Union, Jackson and Williamson started early, with a four-day season, Nov. 9-12. The season will close until Nov. 24, when it will reopen and run through Jan. 31, or until a quota of 32,900 geese are harvested.

Woolard, who has been counting the honkers for 14 seasons, said that taking a goose census is not an "exacting" science.

"Biologists fly over refuge areas. They may spend just a few seconds flying over an area like Horseshoe Lake, and determine that 25,000, 100,000 or even 200,000 geese are holding there," he said.

That is a lot of geese to count in a few seconds. "We do it by grids," said Woolard . "You get a feel for what 500, 1,000, or 5,000 geese look like from 300 feet up at 125 miles per hour. In a large flock we visualize what a grid of 5,000 geese would look like. Then we calculate how many grids there are in a particular concentration."

There is another variation, however. "We have to look at spacing between the geese," said Woolard. "On cold days the geese hover closer together, and it takes a smaller grid to make up 2,000 or 5,000 geese. On warmer days they may be more widely dispersed, with fewer geese in the same grid."

Woolard admits this is something you don't read how to do. "I worked with two 30-year veterans before I could come up with figures that I felt would be acceptable."

The biologists who participate in the count formulate their own counts independently, then compare notes. "Surprisingly, in most instances, we arrive at similar figures," said Woolard. "Where there is a discrepancy we try to arrive at a figure we can all find acceptable. This may entail making another swing around the particular area.

"It's a difficult job," said Woolard. "You're flying low and you're flying fast, and on some days it's a three-hour chore. In most areas you fly in a figure-8 or a circle."

The route starts at the Williamson County Airport, where the biologists meet the Department of Conservation plane.

"We count everything south of Marion," said Woolard. "We swing from the immediate Marion area across the Ohio River to the Ballard County Refuge, then to Swan Lake area near Wickliffe, Ky., and back to Horseshoe, Union County and Crab Orchard. Some days we'll make the swing in a couple of hours, other times it's a three-hour trip."

The counting gets more difficult when the hunting season closes.

"We have to hunt for the birds then," said Woolard. "They'll move off the refuge area into nearby fields. And this time of year geese are hard to see in a soybean or corn field."

Although the count in Southern Illinois has been around the half-million mark during the past two or three years, Woolard remembers years when the numbers were higher.

"During that million census count, I remember flying over Horseshoe Lake, and counting about 360,000 geese," said Woolard. "I thought I had really blown the count. When the swing around the lake was completed, everybody looked at each other. They hesitated to report their count, they were so high. But when we finally starting comparing notes, we all agreed that the Horseshoe Lake Refuge, indeed, did have about 350,000 geese there."

With heavy goose flight expectations this year, the peak count at Horseshoe Lake in Southern Illinois could once again hit the 360,000

Happy counting!