GOOSE HUNTING HOURS EXTENDED FOR FINAL THREE DAYS OF SEASON

BENTON, Ill., Southern Illinois goose hunters will have some additional hours of hunting time this weekend.

Starting Friday, the goose hunting hours in the Southern Illinois Quota Zone and the Rend Lake Quota Zone will be extended until sunset the final three days of the season, which ends Sunday.

Currently, hunting is allowed in the two zones until 3 p.m.

"This change will apply to all private hunting areas, and some public shooting areas," said Illinois Department of Conservation Director Brent Manning, in making the announcement this week.

Lack of hunter success during the 1992-93 season has resulted in a "poor" season in what is normally one of the best goose-hunting areas in the Midwest.

Hunters had harvested only 13,890 geese through Jan. 22 in the Southern Illinois Quota Zone, which includes Alexander, Union, Jackson and Williamson counties.

That total is well under the 28,000 birds harvested in the same area a year ago, with a bag limit of three geese.

The present quota-zone season started Nov. 14, 1992, and will end Sunday, with a bag limit of two geese a day. The count shows the lion's share of geese were killed in the Crab Orchard Wildlife area near Marion, at 7,155. Total harvest around the Horseshoe Lake area as of Friday was 3,700, with 2,900 geese killed in the Union County Wildlife area.

The extra shooting hours Friday, Saturday and Sunday will not apply to public hunting areas at Horseshoe Lake and the Union County Conservation, where hunting hours will end at noon. Hunters on public hunting areas at Cedar Lake, Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge, Oakwood Bottoms, LeRue Swamp, Kincaid Lake and Campbell Pond, all in the Southern Illinois Quota Zone, can also hunt until sunset.

More than 400,000 geese were counted in the Southern Illinois area Monday.

"That count is down about 175,000 from a week ago," said Dennis Thornburg, Wildlife administrator, based at Benton, Ill. "We observed several high-flying flights, which indicated that migration is under way."

About 100,000 geese were counted at the Crab Orchard Refuge, and 85,000 were counted at both Horseshoe Lake and Rend Lake. About 40,000 were counted in the Union County Refuge area, and 29,000 were observed at the Ballard County Refuge in Western Kentucky.