As a record snowstorm plowed into the Northeast last week, the staff of Waterfowler.com ventured to Florida to scout out the latest in outdoor and hunting products at the 2003 SHOT SHOW.
Hello, folks, and, as always, welcome to Waterfowler.com.
The Waterfowler.com staff spent this past weekend seeking out the latest and greatest in waterfowling gear. The recon was well worth the effort. By early June over a thousand new items will be offered in our online Pro Shop where members receive special discounts as part of their membership package. Kolpin Outdoors Incorporated, makers of Final Approach blinds, is just one of the new lines of products Waterfowler.com is pleased to offer in our ever-expanding Pro Shop. Look for Kolpin products and many other new offerings in the Pro Shop in the weeks to come.
And now, on to the Snow Goose Migration Report.
The recent wave of cold weather that swept across the US put the return migration of light geese on hold. In fact, the arctic air sent the bulk of the migration back south where large concentrations of snows and blues are staging along the Texas and Louisiana coast and northward into the Texas panhandle.
Success remains fair-to-good in other parts of the south. Both the Mississippi Delta and the Grand Prairie of Arkansas are still holding dense pockets of geese. In these areas, rice fields are the best producers, but the wet conditions of the terrain seem to be holding the hunter numbers down for now.
Hunters in the mid-latitude states had begun to see an increase in snow geese until the recent cold front, but they now report bird numbers either holding steady or falling slightly. The northernmost areas of light goose concentration look to be along the Kansas/ Nebraska border.
A moderation in weather and temperatures returning to near-normal next week should get the spring migration back on track, but a weak cold front moving down from Canada may have the return flight slightly behind schedule and further south than would normally be expected.
Along the Atlantic coast, heavy snow made the choice of camouflage easy for conservation season hunters last weekend, but it did little to enhance hunter success. The harsh weather broke birds out of their regular patterns and shifted the bulk of the eastern flight further down the coast.
With temperatures forecast to seesaw over the next week from almost warm to very cold it will be tough to pattern light geese anywhere along the Eastern seaboard. Daily scouting and a close eye on local weather conditions will be of the utmost importance to hunters along the Atlantic flyway hoping to intercept the returning light geese in their area.
As the Mid-Winter Survey numbers begin to trickle in, waterfowlers are once again gearing up for the “debate season.” Yes, it is once again that time of year where we all hatch theories and visions of how and why the past season took shape as it did. And although at times we may get our dander up, or perhaps more accurately our feathers ruffled, these debates are strong evidence of the dedication and devotion we all share when it comes to waterfowl. With that in mind, let the debates begin, remembering we are all on the same team and share the same goal – the long term health and stability of both waterfowl and waterfowling.
