FUR, FEATHERS AND FINS

The February meeting of the Missouri Conservation Commission will be held in Southeast Missouri.

The meeting will be held Feb. 10 at Sikeston.

Commission members are Jerry P. Combs, Kennett, Chairman; Andy Dalton, Springfield, Vice Chairman; John Powell, Rolla, Secretary; and Anita B. Gorman, Kansas City.

During the January meeting, the Commission approved the exchange of 30 acres of the Lead Mine Conservation Area, Dallas County, for a 20-acre plot, and agreed to sell two tracts totalling 18 acres of the Poplar Bluff Conservation Area, Butler County, to adjoining landowners to correct boundary problems identified by a recent survey.

The Commission also listened to a group representing the Missouri Trappers Association. The trappers association opposes any future proposals that would eliminate a separate trapping permit by combining it with the resident small game permit.

More than a half-million geese are concentrated in the Southern Illinois/Western Kentucky area following the cold and snow of past week.

A Tuesday census revealed 553,000 geese, 479,000 in Southern Illinois and 73,000 at the Ballard County Wildlife Refuge across the Ohio River in Kentucky.

The largest concentration of big Canada geese was at the Crab Orchard Wildlife Refuge in Williamson and Jackson counties, with 235,000. More than 100,000 geese (105,000) were counted at Horseshoe Lake Refuge in Alexander County, and about 60,000 were found at Union County Wildlife Refuge.

The Southern Illinois Quota Zone goose season closed Sunday, after 51 days. The total harvest will be available early next week. The total harvest for the first 48 days of the season was 28,343 -- 18,667 at Crab Orchard, 5,111 in Alexander County and 4,565 in Union County.

The Ozark Mountain Gobblers Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation will holds its annual turkey-calling contest Feb. 5, at the Ironton Elementary School.

Calling will be in four divisions -- Amateur, Friction, Open and Owl Hooting.

Registration will start at noon, with the calling contest to start at one p.m.

Additional information is available by calling Tony Cole, (314)-546-6103, or Robert Dettmer, (314)-546-2741.

The Perryville Boy Scout Troop #250 will assist the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) with a habitat improvement project at Perry County Community Lake Saturday.

The project involves placing discarded Christmas trees in the lake to improve fish habitat and concentrate fish for anglers.

The trees have been collected and transported to the lake by the Boy Scouts, who will help MDC personnel construct and place brush piles into the lake.

Each brush pile will consist of four to five trees wired to a concrete block. The anchored brush piles will be placed along the dam on the northwest corner of the lake.

The lake is located about two miles west of Perryville on Highway T.

CLARKSVILLE, Mo. -- Bald-eagle watchers are in for a treat this year.

This small Mississippi River town is traditionally a hot spot for bald eagles in January. But this year, thanks to bitter cold up north, there seem to be more than ever.

"I counted 323 and I know I didn't get them all," said Margie Greenwell, who runs the visitors center on a high spot in Clarksville overlooking Lock and Dam 24.

The Missouri Department of Conservation will sponsor Eagle Days in Clarksville Jan. 29-30. Greenwell said up to 6,000 people are expected to attend.

The eagles generally reside further north, but in winter, frozen waterways send them further south in search of their main food item - fish. They travel down into the lower Mississippi River Valley, where they gather to hunt in the first open river they find - the pools below the locks and dams.