OFN actually posted this article on linkedin, but it's a pretty interesting read.

Usually when you hear about how much better it was hunting in "the good old days", you kind of roll your eyes and think that this old timer is just remembering what he thought was greener grass back in his youth, but in this case it's actually true - the number of migratory birds wintering on the Texas coast is declining, and declining rather sharply.

http://m.chron.com/news/article/Fewer-geese-making-Texas-their-winter-home-5126404.php

Cliff's notes: The loss of man made habitat (rice and grain farming) on the Texas coast, coupled with the increase in rice and grain farming in the Mississippi basin and on the plains in states like KS have altered the migration patterns of geese - many simply aren't making the trip down to the coast anymore.

Yep. Very noticeable decline over the past 10 years near my hometown. Sucks...

Was reading article the other day about couple counties in Arkansas that have more geese roosting in them than the whole state of Texas.

Less numbers of goose hunters, coupled with the agricultural issues = more snow geese not in Texas.

Won't be changing for a long time if ever.

Ducks will be following suit in some manner.

Yep its unfortunate wish the rice would come back to the prairie.

We were in Boise Idaho over Christmas and there were Canadian geese everywhere all over town. Maybe they have been too lazy to fly all the way down?

BTW, that was my first time in Boise over Christmas so I don't know if this is out of the ordinary for them.

Those geese would never make it here; they'd go west coast; either California coast or Nevada/Utah.

Most likely greaters or westerns.

We get almost exclusively cackling canadas along the Texas coast.

There are houses ALL OVER the places they used to come down to.

That is most of your porblem. Rice fields are gone, drained by drought and construction. The birds are going somewhere else.

I remember as a kid seeing them by the tens of thousands out around Katy.

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Yep its unfortunate wish the rice would come back to the prairie.

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1. Go have a talk with your US House Rep about the Farm Bill
2. Go have a talk with LCRA
3. Go tell City of Austin and surround cities on the Colorado to stop b***hing about rice farmers


.....if only life was that simple

In the 80's, my grandmother and I used to go look at the snow geese around Gruver. They weren't a ton back then that I remember.

Since then I have noticed a increase in the numbers of waterfowl in the panhandle every year. I think the snow geese have changed from going to Katy to staying up in the panhandle. Just my observation.

Lots less people, and lot more crops.

Water is so variable up there from year to year that they do fluctuate a lot.

Warmer winters the past few years, along with more food up north, haven't pushed them as far south either.

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Less numbers of goose hunters, coupled with the agricultural issues = more snow geese not in Texas.

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I saw more geese flying over while deer hunting in Bell county this year than I remember in recent years. I'm going to try to hunt them some next year out there as I've never been geese hunting in my life. I've got a lot of people asking to go out there so I must have something good I don't know about.

Used to pull "drive-bys" on geese around Needville, when I was a stupid teenager. There were so many they would roost close enough to the farm roads that idiots like me could shoot them.

Log,

they've found this year that the cold winter doesn't matter. It's available food (yes that is tangentially related to cold weather - more food consumed when it's colder to stay alive/warm... but anyways), they found with the additional corn and soy beans (primarily) that the geese are staying at more northern latitudes regardless of weather.

Mouth, more houses and people yes, but that has little to do with the thousands and thousands of acres of what was rice field in the 80's and 90's and is now fallow/cattle pasture.

The geese don't seem to like the hybrid rice varieties planted on the gulf coast. There is a lack of water on the LCRA canal system but there are plenty of farms down here with wells but some of the rice farmers have gotten so lazy that they'd rather just take the rice subsidy payment and commit insurance fraud by planting organic corn that has absolutely no chance of making anything on land designated for rice. I have friends who are drilling more wells on their land to water their rice instead of counting on the canals and I may be doing the same in the near future. We're moving forward with rice no matter what the govt program is as long as we have a decent price.

...all your geese are belong to us.

Wasn't there a fear of overpopulation of snow geese about 10 years ago and authorities were weighing their options such as larger limits, longer seasons etc to try to control it?

The snow goose population is still growing, and still causing issues up where they nest. They just aren't coming to Texas for a variety of reasons already mentioned.

Just because the geese aren't here doesn't mean they are not still alive. They've just moved out of coastal Texas.

Kayakag where you from? I'm from needville. Did the same stuff as a kid

Log said:

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Warmer winters the past few years, along with more food up north, haven't pushed them as far south either.

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12 years later and this is what a lot of hunters are saying. I think it's much more than this. Bird numbers are on the decrease and we aren't getting factual numbers. Hunters all along the fly way are seeing less and less birds.

ETA: I'm talking about duck numbers

Everyone I know has been hammering duck limits every season since this thread was started around the coastal bend. What is your solution to the perceived lack of ducks?

Grew up hunting ducks and geese in Eagle Lake and surrounding areas. My dad was a long time guide back from the cloth spread and newspaper days. It's sad to not have geese anymore. You thought it would never end…. About a month ago I was in EL and there were 1,000s of geese in the air, moving from near Altair toward Sealy. It was like the good ol days. Now, we hunt in Stuttgart and the birds are everywhere. It's just like EL used to be.

Some blame DU / Delta Waterfowl for wetland projects north of Texas, hybrid rice, lack of water, etc… all stopping the birds from coming.