Goose Hunting Guides and Outfitters – Trips and Guided Hunts

The Goose: This waterfowl game bird is a web-footed bird closely related to the duck and swan. It is larger than a duck and smaller than a swan. About 25 kinds of geese live in various parts of the world. Thirteen kinds of wild geese live in the United States and Canada, which are offered by an outfitter or guide on guided hunts. These geese range from 20 to 40 inches long, and have wide wings. They are all migratory birds, flying north in summer and south in winter. Some of them fly as far north as the Arctic Circle, and some as far south as Mexico.

Wild Geese: The Canada goose is the best-known goose of North America. Canadian geese have a broad white band across its throat and cheeks. It ranges from Labrador and the Arctic Ocean to Mexico. The Canada goose builds its nest on a low mound in a marsh. The nest is made of grass and leaves and lined with down. The blue goose has a bluish-gray body and a white head. Blue geese breed in the Arctic islands, and spend the winter in a restricted area on the coast of Louisiana. The blue goose is closely related to two kinds of snow geese, which are white birds with black wing-tips. Snow geese range from the Arctic coast of northeastern Asia and of North America to Lower California and Mexico. Another kind of goose, the brant, is a salt-water bird. It breeds on the Arctic islands and on the coast of Greenland, and migrates south to the eastern coast of the United States. A closely related bird, the black brant, lives on the Pacific Coast. But the wild geese best known to hunting guides and outfitters in North America and Canada are the Canada geese. The most popular of the others in this species include the snow geese, white-cheeked geese, third, and white-faced barnacle geese.

Appearance and Habits: The goose’s neck is a little longer than that of a duck, and not so gracefully curved as a swan’s. Geese are good swimmers. They can walk on land better than either swans or ducks, because their legs are longer and nearer the middle of their bodies. Heavy layers of down underlie their dense plumage. Geese rub their feathers with oil produced by a gland near their tails. This oil waterproofs their bodies. But oil from oil slicks created by ships on inland water may soak their feathers so that the geese are not able to fly and sometimes starve. Geese have long lives and sometimes reach more than 30 years of age in captivity.

Geese fly in groups, often in great V-shaped formations. They fly rapidly, honking loudly, and have been known to fly as high as 29,000 feet above sea level.

Geese usually eat grains and vegetables, and sometimes insects and small water creatures. In some regions, they do much harm to the wheat crop. Farmers often hire men to keep them away. Geese are cautious, intelligent, and difficult to hunt. Guides and outfitters normally know the best places that goose will be in their area, and should be taken advantage of in planning a hunting trip. Some of the geese feed only in wide stretches of water, marshes, or fields where hunters find it difficult to hide. A few members of the flock seem to stand guard against any possible danger while the remainder of the flock feeds.

Many geese next in shallow holes in the ground, which they line with grass, feathers, and down for warmth and protection against the weather. Geese usually lay from three to six white eggs. Wild goose eggs are sometimes hatched under a hen. But a hen can cover only three of the large eggs. The young are tame and amusing in the barnyard with their proud, bold ways.