When it comes to goose-hunting opportunities, we have it good here in the Lone Star State.

Texas hunters are able to hunt geese for nearly five months -- from the beginning of November through the light goose conservation order that runs until the end of March. But that's not to say the pastime is a walk in the park. While the birds often are relatively easy to pattern, based on food and water sources they frequent earlier in the season, most guides and hunters generally must put in a fair amount of scouting time to determine the best locations to set up.

And even though you've scouted birds last month or even last week, that's no guarantee they'll be there this week. More and more birds are seeking out new winter areas, which means there will be no shortage of birds again this month, but where you have to go get them could be a locale that traditionally may not have held waterfowl.

In looking at last season, Dave Morrison, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's waterfowl program leader, said Mother Nature certainly didn't do hunters any favors in a lot of areas of the state.

"It wasn't a good production year in the breeding grounds," he said, "and then you had Ike hit, and we're still in the throes of this drought, so there's no doubt it was tough in a lot of places. Down on the coast, the tides were some of the worst they've had in years. Guys have told me that it was just hard to hunt in places where you've had water in the past, but now you couldn't get in there. And the overall lasting impact of the hurricane is still yet to be seen in some areas. Then in East Texas, there was drought and that certainly didn't help that area that usually has water."

There are a number of areas that get a great deal of waterfowl hunting pressure, including the prairie west of Houston and the marshes of East Texas and the Gulf Coast, but there also has been a shift in recent years as birds move out of areas near population centers. For the most part, the birds have shifted their attention to West Texas and the Rolling Plains, which no doubt helped hunters in that area and in other parts of the state earlier this season.

Morrison said that especially with drought conditions taking hold, birds concentrated in areas with easy access to food and water, as is the norm.

"If there was a bright spot, it has been in playa country," he said.

Morrison said that overall, last year's waterfowl and goose seasons were average, which isn't that bad when you consider how tough the hunting was over a wide swath of the state.

When it comes to snow geese, Morrison said, a strange trend has surfaced in southern parts of the state.