Photo by Neal and MJ Mishler

Late last summer, personnel with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) transported several hundred resident giant Canada geese from central Kentucky to the Ballard Wildlife Management Area (WMA). Since Ballard is one of the Bluegrass State's top two public areas managed for waterfowl, doesn't that strike you as a little strange?

If you've hunted that area, and other spots in far western Kentucky consistently for the last several years, you can probably suspect the reason for this stocking. If not, here's the scoop.

KDFWR officials are trying to bolster the number of homegrown geese in the Ballard County area to supplement a reduced migration coming down the Mississippi Valley Flyway.

Even though goose numbers may increase in the flyway in some years, fewer birds have been reaching Kentucky in recent winters. Often these birds aren't even reaching southern Illinois, but are staying up near Chicago and places in Michigan.

These Canada geese seem to be finding what they need for stopovers farther north. Milder winter conditions don't shove them down our way as frequently. If these geese stop in states north of Kentucky, and a cold snap hits with some decent snow cover, then they'll fly in across the Ohio River to give Kentucky hunters a chance at some decent winter wingshooting.

That just doesn't seem to happen as often as it used to in the late 1980s. Today, it's a whole new ball game.

To do what they can to improve things in the Ballard area, the KDFWR thought perhaps a boosting resident geese numbers (which now make a up a good deal of Kentucky's overall harvest, especially in the state's west and central portions), might provide more hunting opportunity in coming seasons.

This may be particularly true where migratory geese were traditionally dominant in hunters' daily bag. It certainly can't hurt.

"We're still going to have goose-hunting opportunities in the traditional areas such as around the Ballard Refuge and Sloughs WMA near Henderson, when good hunting conditions occur," said Rocky Pritchert, the KDFWR's Migratory Bird Program coordinator.

"Use of those areas by migrant Canada geese is highly dictated by the weather well to the north of us. It's ideal when we see a freeze and snow cover down to about I-64. The geese come farther south because they can't get to the food on the ground, even if it's there, since it's under a few inches of snow.

"We've found out, too, that patterns for Canadas have changed some over the last few years, which is spreading them out to other waterways, in addition to the wetlands provided by our two primary waterfowl areas in the west."