Have the marginal numbers of our more popular duck species left your waterfowling itch unscratched? Then it's time to key in on the abundant snow goose and Canada populations.

You have plenty of opportunity to enjoy quality hunts aimed at resident and migratory Canada geese, as well as the challenging snow goose.

According to Larry Hindman, Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Wildlife and Heritage Division Waterfowl Project Leader, Canada geese will be sufficiently numerous to please the state's wintertime hunters. Besides the ever-present number of resident Canada geese, migratory Canadas will be available in good numbers as well.

"In the range of the Atlantic population of Canada geese, there's going to be abundant birds in the area around the Chesapeake Bay, particularly on the Eastern Shore," notes Hindman.

"There'll be a lot of young birds, so hunting success should be reasonably good."

The same can be said of snow geese. Though the directed hunting effort for snows is much less, there will be plenty of them around.

"This is the year of the snow goose. There was an early spring with high nest densities and above-average clutch sizes. There was little nest predation. So the fall flight of greater snow geese should be very large. There will be a lot of young birds in the snow goose population, which will again play in favor of hunting success."

The Midwinter Waterfowl Survey -- an annual multi-state effort aimed at measuring the status of waterfowl populations -- also indicates an upswing in goose numbers.

The 2008 Maryland survey counted 373,100 Canada geese, compared to 285,700 the previous year.

Snow goose numbers were up as well. The '08 count tabulated 108,000 snows, versus 46,600 counted in '07.

All states within the Atlantic Flyway take part in the Midwinter Waterfowl Survey. During Maryland's work last year, the favorable weather conditions may have partly led to a higher count than during the two previous years.

Though Canada geese are challenging enough in their own right, if you plan on pursuing snows, plan on kicking things up a few notches. Due to the birds' shifty nature, far fewer hunters target snows than they do Canada geese.

"I don't think the average hunter pursues them," said Hindman. "There's a core of guys who hunt snow geese, and a few outfitting services that specialize in snow geese. But the nature of these birds is to move around a lot. They're difficult to pattern. You want to be hunting in the field the birds were in yesterday afternoon. You want to be there the next morning.

"Because of their contacts, a few outfitting services have the ability to access property in both Maryland and Delaware. So they follow the birds and can be reasonably successful at it.

"The guy who rents a farm for hunting Canada geese or snow geese probably has a much better chance at taking Canadas, simply because snow geese are so tough to decoy -- unless you happen to be in a spot they want to be on. You have to be willing and able to follow snow geese around if you want to be consistently successful on them."