As an avid hunter and angler, Andrea Charlebois has accumulated her share of outdoors memories over the years, but it might be tough to top the Ross’s goose she shot during a late March light goose hunt near Wakonda, South Dakota.
A physical education teacher at Central High School, Charlebois, of East Grand Forks, was hunting with a group of women on a guided light goose excursion in late March when she bagged a banded Ross’s goose that was at least 19 years old, based on information from the band return.
A conservation action designed to reduce overabundant numbers of light geese, the spring hunt is open to snow, blue and Ross’s geese.
According to the band return, the Ross’s goose was banded Aug. 9, 2005, in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. The female goose was hatched in 2004 or earlier, the band return indicated.
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The oldest Ross’s goose ever documented was a female at least 22½ years old when it was shot in 1993 by a hunter in California, according to the allaboutbirds.org website.
“My first band, and it was a doozy,” said Charlebois, who’s having the memorable Ross’s goose mounted by a taxidermist in Wahpeton, North Dakota.
Contributed/Andrea Charlebois
Considering light geese spend summers in northern Canada and migrate to the Gulf of Mexico every winter – 2,000 miles each way would be a conservative estimate — it’s safe to say the banded goose had at least 88,000 miles under its wings just in migration.
This was Charlebois’ third snow goose hunting excursion, she says. They booked the trip through Premier Flight Guides, a guide service that follows the birds north on their spring migration. The hunting crew included women from North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin who knew each other through “different hunting adventures,” Charlebois says.
Contributed/Andrea Charlebois
“We just had a bunch of gals that got together to go hunting, and it was a good weekend to go down, and we saw a ton of birds,” she said. “We didn’t get a bunch because it’s all adult birds rather than juveniles. The adult birds are pretty sky high and go right to the snow line.
“We got quite a few, but not as many as we thought we would.”
The Ross’s goose was by itself when it landed just beyond the decoys, Charlebois recalls, and she and three other women walked out to flush the bird.
“Once it got up, we took shots — everybody shot,” she said. “I felt like mine went off first, and then I saw it go down. … That’s kind of what goose hunting is, everybody shoots, and it’s like, ‘Did I get it? Did you get it?’ We all kind of got a piece of it.”
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In keeping with waterfowl tradition, the women each put spent shotgun shells, one of which had a feather from the goose, in a hat to determine who would get the bird, Charlebois says.
“Then you draw that out of a cap, and whoever gets the shell with the feather gets the bird, and I got it,” she said.
Contributed/Andrea Charlebois
They knew the goose was old because the band only had a phone number to call and not a website for reporting the band number, Charlebois says. Abby Carlson of Wahpeton, one of her hunting partners, called in the band number, Charlebois says.
Carlson’s name is also on the bird “as far as getting shots at it,” Charlebois said. “We both feel that we hit it, and I got the luck of the draw on the feather in the empty shell.
“We were able to tell within moments how old the bird was, where it was banded, and that it was just unusually old. And so I said, ‘this is definitely going to be mounted.’ ”
The excitement built even further once they discovered how old the bird really was, Charlebois says.
“Our guide was really excited,” she said. “(He) hadn’t heard of any bird being that old.”
Beyond the camaraderie, the opportunity to witness the spring snow goose migration — one of nature’s great spectacles — was also a highlight of the trip.
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“Snownadoes,” they’re sometimes called, when light geese by the thousands swirl in for a landing.
“Just seeing the number of waterfowl, like ‘specks’ (white-fronted geese), the geese and the ducks,” Charlebois said. “I have never seen so many ducks in my entire life. Just beautiful ducks — pintails and everything.
“We just saw so many birds. It was just cool to see and experience that — and be in a little nicer weather.”
Without a doubt, though, the memory of the “unicorn bird” — as Charlebois calls the old Ross’s goose — is something she’ll always treasure.
“It’s like hitting a grand slam home run in the bottom of the ninth at the World Series,” she said. “It’s something that probably won’t happen ever again.”
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That's one old bird! East Grand Forks woman shoots Ross's goose that's at least 19 years old - Alexandria Echo Press
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