During the late regular season, all of Cape Cod is open to hunting. In the later bonus season, it is closed because most of the geese wintering there are migratory birds.

The largest Cape Cod hunting areas are on the Barnstable Marsh on the north side of Cape Cod, which is full of tidal cuts and islands where a spread of decoys may attract geese.

A small access point is a left turn off Route 6A, just after the railroad bridge in Barnstable. This landing puts you closer to the marsh than the larger Barnstable town landing.

The areas around Pleasant Bay and up into Nauset Marsh on the eastern-most portion of the Cape also offer lots of possibilities.

Nauset Marsh is accessed in Eastham from Hemenway Road, off Route 6. A right turn takes you to the town landing on Salt Pond Bay.

In the Central Zone there are dozens of wildlife management areas with open grain fields, many of which host pheasant hunts during the upland bird season.

Call the district office closest to where you live for information.

Massachusetts' regular-season bag limit is two geese per day, and five birds per day in the special late season. A Massachusetts hunting license is required, along with the state ($5) and federal ($15) duck stamps.

If you hunt after Dec. 31, you will need a new license and new state duck stamp. But the federal stamp does not expire until June 30, 2008.

Maps and information on these and other areas are available from the Massachusetts Division of Fish and Wildlife Web site (search "WMA Maps"). Or call the Central District office at (508) 389-6300, or the Southeast District office (508) 759-3406.

RHODE ISLAND
Jason Osenkowski, Rhode Island's wildfowl biologist and a goose hunter himself, filled us in on the special areas created by cooperation between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Rhode Island Department and Environmental Management.

Known as the Matunuck Hunter-Landowner Cooperative Area and/or the South Shore Management Area, this collection of goose fields is planted in corn during the normal growing season and provides productive goose hunting for those who have not yet contacted local farmers or golf-course superintendents.

Special permits required for using the fields are available by sending a self-addressed, business-sized envelope to Goose Permit, Rhode Island Division of Fish and Wildlife, 277 Great Neck Road, West Kingston, RI 02892. Please include your phone number.

Daily reservations are necessary, and special rules apply. Here are some of the important ones:

Every hunter must have a permit and must be registered to reserve a field. Reservations may be made no earlier than seven working days in advance. Permit holders may hunt only the field they reserve. Hunters may hunt only one-half day per week during the early season and two half-days per week in the late season.

Portable blinds may be used along with natural vegetation. Pit blinds are dug in five of the six fields. No other pits may be dug. All hunting parties must have at least 24 full-sized or over-sized decoys, and must complete an end-of-season survey, regardless of their harvest success.

Biologist Osenkowski said that hunting success is good in the fields, with some blinds producing better than others.

Rhode Island has also held an experimental special late goose season for Providence and Kent counties and portions of Exeter and North Kingston -- essentially, the northern half of the state. The southern half is not included because studies have shown that many of the wintering geese are migrants that have decided to quit flying farther south.