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The
Snows Of North Dakota
By T.R. Michels, Trinity Mountain Outdoors
 If
you've ever spent time on the northern great plains
you're familiar with the strong winds that dominate
the fall and winter months in that region. These winds
are born in the arctic and sweep down across Canada
into the Dakotas and Minnesota, bringing with them
the great gray clouds and cold air locally referred
to as an Alberta Clipper. These Arctic blasts signal
the onset of weather that, once the storm passes,
turns the barren fields a beautiful, silent white.
The winds signal the coming of another storm, a storm
that also leaves the fields covered in white, not
with silence, but with raucous excitement. It starts
as a huge gray-white cloud, and as it gets closer
you hear the sounds of geese, thousands of geese,
a great writhing, swirling flock of snow geese. They
too have been pushed down from the north by the arctic
winds. These are the geese formerly known as Chen
hyperborea, "the goose of the far north,"
a fitting name for the Snow Goose now known as Chen
caerulescens.
I had been hunting Canada geese for years before I
first got the chance to hunt snows with Tom Zibble
and Bill Habedank, designers of the Goose trap blind.
I don't normally have much time to hunt for myslef
during the waterfowl season because I am usually guiding.
Unseasonable weather and a continued drought made
for a slow season that year, so I decided to take
a few days off and drive to Devils Lake, North Dakota.
On our first afternoon we scouted several lakes looking
for flocks of geese that were large enough to hunt.
The normal strategy when hunting migratory geese is
to locate a flock on a daytime roosting area, wait
until they leave the lake, and follow them to where
they feed in the evening. The next morning you return
well before daylight, set up your decoys and hope
the geese return. Geese normally feed two times a
day, leaving the lake shortly after daylight to feed
for a couple of hours before returning to the lake
for the day. Then they usually leave the lake again
two to three hours before sunset and feed until dark,
when they fly back to the lake. If they are not disturbed
on the feeding area, if there is still food remaining
in the field, and if there isn't a drastic weather
change, the geese often return to the same field the
next morning.
We followed a large flock of geese, driving down dusty
dirt roads, using binoculars when we needed to. We
drove five miles west, then two miles north, with
one of us always looking at a county plat map, so
we knew where to find a road to follow while we tried
keep up with the geese. When they finally stopped
we were at least ten miles from the lake, and the
geese had landed in a posted field. Scratch Plan A.
It was too late to follow another flock, so we returned
to the farm where we were staying and had supper.
Because we didn't have many options we decided to
hunt near the lake the next morning. We hoped to have
a chance to pass shoot as the geese left the lake.
The next morning we arrived at the lake about an hour
before daybreak. We parked the trucks over a rise
a half mile from where we intended to hunt, so that
we wouldn't spook the geese. While we walked to the
hunting site I could hear the clamor of thousands
of geese. We waited in the darkness, listening to
the geese. When the sun finally peeked over the horizon
we saw the first geese. There were thousands of them
swirling over the lake like a great cloud. The geese
rose higher and higher, the size of the cloud growing
until the birds separated into smaller flocks and
headed out to feed. As we watched we hoped we had
chosen a good location. As it turned out it was almost
too good.
When the geese left the lake several flocks flew directly
over our heads, well within range. The problem was
they were landing in the field right behind us, not
five hundred yards away. If we shot at them we would
ruin our chances of decoying them in the next day.
We decided to watch them for a while, then followed
several other flocks so we didn't have to rely on
just this one field for the next few days.
The next morning we setup a hundred magnum shells
and three hundred windsocks in the field where the
geese had landed the day before. For concealment we
put on white suits and placed a half dozen magnum
shell around us as we lay on the ground. To a high
flying flock of geese we would look like one of the
decoys. I spotted the firs flock of geese shortly
after daylight. The first arrivals were in small flocks
that gave us a good looking over but were reluctant
to land. I called constantly, using the loud "fast
cluck" of landing geese, trying to entice the
birds to land. More geese joined the small flocks
overhead until they became a whirling, milling mass,
like the vortex of a white tornado. As I called I
could hear the loud frantic honking, and the lower
murmur of the gabble as the geese cupped their wings
to land. There were geese everywhere. They were stacked
up in flocks from thirty to a hundred yards in the
air. There were geese on my right and on my left,
and there were more above and below them.
When the closest flock was in range someone yelled,
"Take 'em." I pulled up my beat up Remington
1148 twelve gauge, loaded with Federal T Shot, and
fired at a white goose directly in front of me. I
saw it and the bird on its left sail to the ground.
I fired again and a third bird fell. Through the clamor
of the startled geese I heard shots on my right. As
I watched the geese backpedal to get away I saw a
blue goose on a long glide toward the ground. During
all the excitement I hadn't heard the shots on my
left as Bill dropped a mature white-fronted goose.
When I looked around there were nine geese on the
ground. We should have had more, but the thrill of
watching thousands of geese descend on the decoys
was enough to satisfy all of us for the rest of the
day.
Four o'clock the next morning found us in a field
three miles from the lake. We had spotted a large
flock feeding in the field the night before and decided
to give it a try the next morning. During the night
the wind had shifted and the weather turned stormy
and cold. With the low cloud cover we expected the
geese to fly low and come in on the deck. We again
set out the decoys, but spent a lot of time chasing
the shells and restaking the windsocks. Because of
the strong winds I suggested we use the blinds and
set them up about thirty yards downwind of the decoys,
so that if the geese swung short they would still
be in range. I decided to sit in the decoys and do
the calling. It's been my experience that geese will
come to the call, and because of this it's best to
sit in the decoys when calling.
While the others set up the blinds I piled barley
straw around me and lay down on the ground. I didn't
want to use a blind because the geese would be approaching
from our back and would have to swing around to land.
I wanted to be able to see the geese, and watch to
see how they responded to my call. If what I was doing
didn't work I would change my calling until they did
respond.
When the geese began to appear a mile away I started
to call, but they did not swing in our direction.
The wind was so strong I was sure they couldn't hear
me. I switched to a Sure Shot with a megaphone attachment.
Under windy conditions, or when the geese are a long
way off, the megaphone makes the call loud enough
to attract the geese. As I called the geese began
to swing. Once the saw the decoys they came in low
as I had expected. Tom and Bill, positioned downwind
on either side of me, had good shooting as the geese
swung short of the decoys but right over the blinds.
Tom made a long shot on a goose that had been wounded
by one of us. Someone took a hen mallard that came
in below the geese. Tom and Bill doubled on a pair
of geese I called in. I heard Tom's gun and saw a
goose plummet from the sky as I heard another shot
from Bill. The second bird did a helicopter spin on
its way to the ground. I got in the action with two
more birds.
On the final evening of our hunt we decided to try
to for a large flock of ducks we had spotted. After
a long stalk, and a couple of failed attempts at jump
shooting, we headed back to the trucks. We arrived
in time to see one of the most beautiful sunsets I
have ever seen. The clouds on the western horizon
were painted with shades of pink, red and purple.
As we watched the sunset flocks of geese flew by in
long undulating skeins. Directly overhead a flock
of swans added their lonely cries to the guttural
sounds of Sandhill Cranes as they all winged their
way to the roosting area for the night. It was a memorable
ending to great hunt.
The fall migration of geese into North Dakota usually
begins in mid-October, with peak migration about the
third week of October. Devils Lake and the smaller
lakes to its west and north often hold geese at this
time, as well as the refuge at Bottineau, near the
Canadian border. The majority of the birds are Lesser
Snow Geese, with a few White-fronted Geese, smaller
subspecies of Canada geese are infrequent. Hunters
may also apply for drawings for Tundra Swan and Sandhill
Cranes. Duck, pheasant, sharptail grouse and hungarian
partridge season are all open in mid- October.
Snow geese are divided into two subspecies; the
Greater Snow Goose and the Lesser Snow Goose. Prior
to 1960 both subspecies were known by the scientific
name Chen hyperborea, and the blue goose was known
by the name Chen caerulescens. The blue goose is now
known to be a color phase of the Lesser Snow Goose
and the scientific name of all Snow Goose subspecies
been changed to Chen caerulescens.
Lesser snow geese are divided into four populations;
the midcontinental lesser, the western central flyway
lesser, the Wrangell Island lesser and the western
Canadian Arctic lesser. The eastern populations of
lesser snow geese breed on Baffin Island and Hudson
Bay in eastern Canada. They migrate through much of
the central part of the United States, from the Ohio
Valley to the eastern portions of North and South
Dakota and Nebraska, and winter along the Gulf Coast.
The western populations breed on the northern coast
and islands of the Northwest Territories, the Chukchi
Peninsula of Russia, and on Wrangell Island. They
migrate through the western states and winter in Washington,
California, Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico. Greater
snow geese breed primarily in Greenland and on Ellesmere
Island, migrate through eastern Canada, and winter
along the Atlantic coast.
If you are interested in more waterfowl
hunting tips, or more waterfowl biology and behavior,
click on Trinity Mountain Outdoor News and T.R.'s
Hunting Tips at www.TRMichels.com. If you have questions
about waterfowl or waterfowl hunting log on to the
T.R.'s Tips message board.
This article is an excerpt from the
Duck & Goose Addict's Manual ($14.95 + $5.00 S&H),
by T.R. Michels, available in the Trinity Mountain
Outdoor Products catalog.
T.R. Michels is a nationally recognized
game researcher/wildlife behaviorist, outdoor writer
and speaker. He is the author of the Whitetail, Elk,
Duck & Goose, and Turkey Addict's Manuals. His
latest products are Hunting the Whitetail Rut Phases,
the Complete Whitetail Addict's Manual, the 2005 Revised
Edition of the Elk Addict's Manual; and the 2005 Revised
Edition of the Duck & Goose Addict's Manual. For
a catalog of books and other hunting products contact:
T.R. Michels, Trinity Mountain Outdoors,
E-mail: TRMichels@yahoo.com
Web Site: www.TRMichels.com
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