Brighton – This shouldn’t be construed as a knock on opportunity, at least not where it involves something so desirable as an improved chance to bag an early season goose.
But it should be noted that grand benefaction seldom comes calling without an equal serving of challenge.
So it is with Colorado’s expanded Northern Front Range season that extends through Sunday in 10 counties and part of another. The upside of the rule change is that the area in which hunters may pursue these so-called golf-course geese has more than doubled. On the other hand, so has the task of trying to draw a bead on all those fresh fields and ponds where the big birds might be lurking.
Think of this nine-day hunt as a kind of shakedown season, a getting-to-know-you dance between man and bird that ultimately will decide whether the Division of Wildlife’s attempt to thin what many consider a nuisance population of geese actually pans out.
For those who may have missed the memo, wildlife managers expanded the early hunt zone to include all of Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Clear Creek, Denver, Douglas, Gilpin, Jefferson and Larimer counties, along with that part of Weld west of U.S. 85.
The notion is to provide a better shot at a steadily expanding population of urban geese that increasingly nettles golfers, soccer players and just about everyone else who cares what gets stuck to the bottoms of their shoes.
What began nearly a half-century ago as a wonderful experiment to attract more geese to northeast Colorado has morphed into a matter of civic concern. Most folks appreciate the exhilarating sight of wild fowl on the wing. Trouble is, nobody can control where they land.
The early season that began last Saturday is designed to reduce the annoyance, if only a little.
“The resident goose population has been increasing steadily,” said Mark Beam, who has been chasing them and their northern cousins for 26 years.
“Do the math. If you have, say, a thousand pair of geese and if they raise just one offspring to maturity, it doesn’t take that long to reach 10,000,” Beam said of the long-lived birds.
Beam operates Stillwater Outfitters, a leading waterfowl guide service (303-659-8665), and naturally does his best to assist with the problem. Trouble is, the areas with all the parks and golf courses that attract the most geese also are populated with people and all their accoutrements.
Thus it was with some delight that Beam and four companions Monday waded chest-deep to an island in the middle of an isolated 20-acre pond northwest of Brighton that served as a web-footed aviary of sorts.
Somewhere out in the darkness, ducks conversed in several languages; a flock of geese, edgy at the intrusion, took wing in a noisy clatter. As daybreak arrived in a riot of orange hues, many decided to return.
Beam has been hunting the pond for nearly a quarter-century, but until now it had always been out of bounds for geese. With a broad spread of duck decoys on one side and a tighter set of geese on the other, the hunters settled back to receive whatever nature might deliver.
As one might expect from birds never confronted with such deception, the first flight of geese came straight to the decoys. So did the second and third. In between, little groups of mallards and widgeon buzzed in close, just to keep things lively.
“I remember back in the 1980s, we’d hunt all season with the idea of shooting a couple of geese in this area. We’d chase the same flock around all season,” Beam said. “The other day, we had about 1,500 sitting in the same field of plowed corn.”
Beam and his associates also observed more ducks than they had anticipated for an opening weekend. Like the early goose hunt, the eastern Colorado duck season will continue through Sunday before resuming Nov. 3. Hunting in the newly defined Mountain/Foothills duck zone will continue through Nov. 26. The early goose dates also apply to the San Luis Valley, South Park and North Park.
The regular Central Flyway goose hunt will be Nov. 25-Feb. 18. In the Pacific Flyway, west of the Continental Divide, the first half of the duck season extends through Oct. 15. The western Colorado goose season will end Friday and resume Nov. 1.
Charlie Meyers can be reached at 303-954-1609 or cmeyers@denverpost.com.
