Not that Harris has anything against duck hunters who transform into goose hunters solely when an opportunity presents itself. "Hey -- I used to be one of them!" he admitted. "But about four years ago, when our ducks started getting scarce -- and they've continued to get even more scarce each year -- I decided to get serious about goose hunting. We had lots of geese, and I learned real quickly that you have to commit to hunting honkers if you want to kill them. You can't hunt ducks in the morning and, if that doesn't work out, switch to geese."

That realization did more to improve Harris' goose hunting than any other factor. But other adjustments did play a part -- like, for instance, a complete overhaul of his waterfowling equipment.

"Oh, man -- I spent a lot of money switching from ducks to geese," he said. "But I swear it was worth it. My buddies and I spent close to $3,000 each over the last few years getting geared up for geese. And that doesn't count the amount of money we've spent on gas riding around and finding places to hunt, which is a big part of goose hunting.

"But in the long run, we've saved money. We used to spend thousands of dollars a year on two or three duck leases. Turns out we are finding plenty of places to hunt geese for free. It's like we're doing landowners a favor. One guy even asked me how much we'd charge him for killing his geese. Imagine that! We even found a couple of landowners who let us hunt ducks if we keep the goose numbers down."

Granted, that scenario isn't the one that all goose hunters are likely to luck into -- but it does offer a notion of the level of quality that our goose hunting can attain. If landowners allow free access to property, there must be an unmet need.

"All we have to promise usually is that we will leave the property in the same condition we found it -- except for fewer geese," said Al Thompson, one of Harris' hunting partners. "We pick up all our shell hulls, all our dead birds -- and we even clean a few of the geese and offer them to the landowner. We haven't had a problem with finding and then keeping places to hunt."

FINDING BIRDS
Most areas of the Delta hold geese at least periodically. According to Scott Baker, the MDWFP's annual winter duck survey flights have resulted in goose sightings in most areas of the Delta, with the vast majority of the huge flocks staying in those counties along the Mississippi River.

Geese are found as far east as the areas around Sardis, Enid and Grenada lakes, but not nearly in the numbers seen in the west Delta.

Finding huntable numbers of birds is as easy as driving the Delta highways, since the flocks are easy to spot -- huge white areas resembling snowpack contrasted against an otherwise dark-brown background.

"The thing about the geese is that, once they find a field with any amount of crop stubble -- be it soybean, corn or even rice -- they won't take long to completely clear it," said Harris. "When they get through going across the field, there's nothing but thousands of blobs of goose droppings left. They hoover it as clean as can be. There's nothing left to hold the soil. Which is why I think the landowners are so happy to see us."