ILLINOIS GOOSE SEASON NEARS END

WARE, Ill. -- The goose-hunting season ends Sunday in Southern Illinois.

And, even though hunters in the four-county -- Alexander, Union, Williamson and Jackson -- area are short of this year's quota, the season won't be extended.

The goose season, which opened Dec. 3, was scheduled for 51 days, through Jan. 22, or a 39,800-goose quota, whichever came first.

Waterfowl biologist Rich Whitten blamed the season on the weather.

"We have plenty of geese in the area, but with a lot of sunshine and warm weather, we haven't had a lot of good waterfowl hunting days," he said.

Hunters in the quota zone bagged 21,429 geese through last weekend. Hunters in the Crab Orchard area have reported more success, as they bagged some 13,996 geese through Jan. 15. Only 3,737 geese were reported killed in Alexander County, and 3,636 in Union County.

"I can't see any way of reaching the quota," said Whitten, who is headquartered at the Union County Wildlife Refuge near Ware.

Hunters, however, will have more hours to hunt the final three days.

Shooting hours have been extended from ending at 3 p.m. to sunset Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

A year ago, hunters killed more than 36,000 geese in the quota zone area. That was 6,000 more than the 1994 quota of 30,600.

"The hunting was great the last week of the 1993-94 season," Whitten said. Hunters throughout the quota zone bagged more than 6,000 birds during the final three or four days.

More than 400,000 Canada geese were counted during a Jan. 9 census.

Some 151,000 geese were counted in the Crab Orchard Lake Wildlife Refuge area, 76,000 were counted at the Horseshoe Lake Refuge in Alexander County, and 62,000 were found at the Union County Refuge.

About 80,000 geese were reported in the Rend Lake area, and about 36,000 were counted at the Ballard County Refuge in western Kentucky.

The Southern Illinois area is the last to close the goose season in Illinois.

With the lack of extreme cold weather in Southern Illinois, many Canada geese never made it down this far, Whitten said.

"There are as many as 200,000 geese in the central and northern Illinois areas," Whitten said, "and another 200,000 are reported in Wisconsin.

Goose hunting in West Kentucky and Southeast Missouri will continue through Jan. 31.