SOUTHERN ILLINOIS GOOSE NUMBERS UP WITH COLD SNAP

Suddenly there are a few Canada geese in Southern Illinois.

With wintry weather conditions arriving in the northern areas of the Mississippi Flyway, the big honkers are starting the trek to their Southern Illinois winter vacation grounds.

"I talked to waterfowl officials in Wisconsin this morning," said Kathy Thornburg, of the Union County Wildlife Refuge. "They are getting cold weather and snow there. With a few days of bitter cold and snow, the geese should start south."

A bitter cold front moved into the Great Lakes area today. More snow is expected to follow, while a mix of rain and snow is expected through the Midwest and Ohio Valley.

That's good news for waterfowlers in the Southern Illinois Quota Zone of Alexander, Union, Jackson and Williamson counties.

Hunting has been slow in Southern Illinois since it opened on Thanksgiving weekend. Twenty-four days into the 1999-2000 season, only 1,574 geese have been killed in the quota zone, an average of 66 birds a day.

A total of 7,278 hunters have logged hunting times in the quota zone, with more than 5,000 of them hunting in the Williamson/Jackson county areas. More than 1,200 hunters have visited Union County, with 1,036 at Horseshoe Lake.

Hunters in the quota zone can hunt through Jan. 31, or until a quota of 36,100 birds is reached.

The 1998-99 season did cease early, when goose totals suddenly soared to more than 200,000 and hunters reached their quota of 13,100 by Jan. 15. The quota was expanded.

The quota was vastly expanded for the 1999-2000 season, following great conditions and a good hatch of geese in the Canadian northlands.

The latest count Monday revealed only 17,700 geese in Southern Illinois, but that is double the previous count of 8,600 geese in the same area.

And Monday's numbers were really noticeable in the Horseshoe Lake and Union County areas. Two weeks earlier, only 2,000 geese were found in those areas. But the latest count showed almost 8,000 geese.

With the latest cold snap, geese are expected to fly in daily.

By comparison with a year ago, only 9,700 geese were counted in the Southern Illinois during a late December census.

Crab Orchard, Union County and Horseshoe Lake were the numbers one, two and three areas for geese in the Monday census. Crab Orchard, with 4,200 geese at the Crab Orchard Wildlife Refuge in Jackson and Williamson counties; 4,100 at the Union County Wildlife Refuge and 3,700 at the Horseshoe Lake Refuge in Alexander County.

Almost 3,000 geese were counted in the Rend Lake area, and about 700 were found on the Ballard County Refuge of West Kentucky.

Another 10,000 snow and blue geese were found in Southern Illinois. About 3,000 of the snows and blues were found in the Rend Lake area, and more than 5,000 were found in the Ten-Mile-Creek area.

The fall flight for Canada geese in the Mississippi Valley flyway is expected to double the flight of about 600,000 during the peak periods of a year ago.