Have you ever wondered how many resident or migrant Canada geese are in the hunting season harvest.  Band recoveries are weighted using estimated population size and the number of adult geese banded per  population.

Here is a table that show the harvest derivation of Canada geese for each area of the flyway

With the situation changing rapidly on the Gulf Coast due to the recent oil spill, Ducks Unlimited biologist Dr. Tom Moorman, director of conservation planning in the Southern Region, offered his thoughts and observations concerning coastal areas where DU works to provide habitat that sustains millions of wintering waterfowl and the resident mottled duck population.

Some highlights from Dr Moorman's Letter:

• At this time, it is not possible to say what impacts the oil spill may have on waterfowl
• Restoration of the Gulf Coast is bigger than any single agency or organization can solve on its own
• Public policy work is critical to conserving the Gulf Coast
• DU's long-term approach is to use the best available science to grow our direct conservation program and policy efforts
• DU has contacted various state and federal partners to offer any assistance we can in the near-term

If you are just getting started in field hunting, choosing the right fields to hunt can be very difficult. Here are a few tips that I use myself, to help you narrow down a field to hunt:      

• The first item to take care of is to locate bodies of water in the general area you plan on hunting. It is ideal that the birds are using this field to roost at. A roosting location is a body of water where the birds feel safe, returning daily to spend the night on. These roosting locations can range from large lakes and quarries, to small farm ponds and creeks. You cannot just simply locate a body of water, you must be certain that the birds are returning to this location every night. Once you have located a roosting location, this is where you want to start narrowing down on where to hunt.
  

I was invited by my friend, Karl, to central PA for an upland hunt. I arrived at his camp on a cool November evening, walked my dogs, and carried my duffle bags into camp. Karl, his father, a friend and I stayed up talking about previous hunts they had at this camp. We also talked about dog training and then finally went to bed.  A great breakfast of eggs, homefries and scrapple welcomed our morning as we packed up and headed out to the woods. I put on my Coat, chaps and then grabbed my Beretta 12 gauge over and under and my Deutsch Drahthaar, Bessi as Karl got his Deutsch Drahthaar, Bella, out of the truck and ready for the hunt. Starting out through some thick and thorny woods, I flushed a grouse and missed. Bessi then went on point and I heard a Timberdoodle, known to most as a Woodcock