Hopefully, the hints of an impending warming trend this past week is a sign that a change is coming in the weather - which is exactly what is needed for hunting snow geese during the conservation season that is underway through Friday, April 25.

With a daily limit of 25 birds, no possession limit and the use of electronic calls and mechanical decoys being legal, the snow goose conservation season is one of the most liberal. Unfortunately, getting into the fields to put out decoy spreads and construct blinds has been nearly impossible by cause of thigh-high snow that has frozen.Like other waterfowl, hunters must be properly licensed, possess a migratory bird permit and a Federal Waterfowl Stamp to hunt snow geese. In addition, they need a free conservation snow goose permit that can be downloaded and printed off the Pennsylvania Game Commission website.Snow geese are also the most fickle of all waterfowl and can be here today and gone tomorrow. For that reason, the PGC provides some tips that are designed to increase hunter success.Hunters must make their blind disappear to the extend that there is nothing there, which can be done by keeping them well mudded and setting up in low areas of a field with taller vegetation.It is a must to keep retrievers under control, and if the dog is not steady it should be staked. Remember, a retriever's head should always be parallel or behind a hunter to protect its hearing from shotgun blasts and create a mental barrier that will help keep the dog from breaking.Ideally, all hunters would be able to put out a spread of 200 decoys, but there are some tricks that can make a spread appear larger. By leaving space between decoys, 100 can be made to appear like 150 from the air, just as packing them tightly can make the spread appear to have 50 birds.If birds show interest in a decoy spread, allow them to work as close as possible before call-ing the shot in order to maximize shot opportunities. When calling a large flock of snow geese, call to individual birds or small flocks that are showing the most interest as this often will trigger the main flock to do the same.As snow geese center on calling, place the hunter who is calling in the middle of the hunters to provide better shot opportunities for all hunters. It is also important to learn when to call the shot by observing the behavior of the birds.If the birds develop a pattern of circling twice and then leaving, those shots may be as good as it gets that day. Another consideration is making changes in the set-up, and it is also important to hunt the weather.When possible hunt on days with wind, and the harder the wind blows, the farther down wind blinds should be positioned in the decoy spread. And, with a decoy spread for snow geese, the more the better.While all hunters hope for those in-the-spread shots, on most days be prepared for some long-range shots when hunting snow geese. It is important to know the range of effectiveness for shotguns and how they perform with various types of ammunition.A common mistake is often overlooking the importance of keeping all the extras -- from coolers to ammo boxes to extra guns - covered and completely out of sight. Only the decoys should be visible from the air to approaching snow geese.When using an electronic call, use the best quality audio equipment as possible and ex-periment by using different sounds and volumes. Sometimes, the sound of a call on the ground sounds completely different in the air, so never be afraid to make some changes.