At the club I hunt geese in late winter, I think the entire club got 2 geese in January. A good day is 100 geese and over 1,000 for the year is typical. 2 for the entire month of January
We just didn't have the weather for the entire month. We had good duck hunting and I think decent goose hunting for a short period at Christmas, when I was out of town of course
Then it got 50 degrees and everything scattered.
January 31, I worked from my home. I had planned on being hunting. Geese flew over my house almost nonstop. There should be no geese in the area by that time. The next day I drove across the river where the mallards usually stack up this time of year. A roughly 1 mile stretch of river that I could see was wall to wall geese. There were a couple acres of ducks on the adjacent canal. I guess the geese ran them out. There just aren't supposed to be that many geese in the north zone of Illinois this time of year. But it was 50's and raining two weeks earlier. We haven't had a winter that has froze before January and stayed frozen for quite a few years now. When I first started hunting around the cooling lake, I remember the geese being pushed further south because of too much snow and then come back when we would get some warming, but never 50's and rain. Now, they barely get pushed down and then it warms up and they are right back up north. The season up north closes mid January, but the birds are spread out and I don't have any places that are nearly as good.
Goofy weather the last few years. Today it's 70's and sunny, but I am in Florida though