OLIVE BRANCH, Ill. -- Richard Whitton counted 109,000 geese.

Don Wollard had 95,000 geese on his tally sheet.

A third spotter found only 65,000 geese.

The three men, huddled into the right side of a two-engine Cessna 337, peered out the window as the pilot made another pass around the Horseshoe Lake Wildlife Refuge in Alexander County.

The figures were a little closer the second pass -- 105,000, 95,000 and 90,000.

"That's pretty close," said Whitton, a waterfowl biologist with the Illinois Department of Conservation. "When you're looking at that many geese, and all three goose census-takers are that close, that's good."

The three men -- Whitton and Woolard, who work out of the Union County Wildlife Refuge, and Bob Williamson of Havana, Ill. -- have the intricate chore of keeping count of Canada geese in Southern Illinois and Ballard County in Western Kentucky.

"We fly every week, weather permitting," said Whitton. "We have a pool of five or six men who make the flight, and use at least three census-takers for each flight."

Last Tuesday five men made the flight, and all agreed that more than a half-million geese are concentrated in the area. Their breakdown: 185,000 in the Horseshoe Lake area of Alexander County, 190,000 in the Crab Orchard Wildlife Refuge area in Williamson and Jackson counties, 95,000 at the Union County Wildlife Refuge, and 76,000 at the Ballard Refuge just across the Ohio River in Kentucky.

Smaller flocks of geese were found in a number of other areas -- Cache River, Campbell Pond, Carlyle Lake and Burning Star Mine.

Counting geese is no trivial undertaking, said Whitton.

"The weekly aerial goose census, conducted from November through the second weekend of February, provides biologists with vital information," he said. "Besides providing a service to goose hunters and goose watchers, it helps us determine how much food we need at the various refuges."

Biologists calculate "goose use days" from the census figure to determine acreage of crops to be planted on the refuges in the spring. "Utilizing that formula, those 185,000 geese at the Horseshoe Lake Refuge last week would translate into almost 1.3 million `goose use days' during the week," said Whitton.

The goose count fluctuates from week to week. "During the first few counts in November and December of 1993, the count at Horseshoe was between 10,000 and 12,000. Two weeks ago about 100,000 geese were at Horseshoe and last week 185,000," said Whitton.

The census figures are also used to determine maximum harvest figures, nesting and travel trends.

Whitton explained: "For instance, in recent years fewer geese have been attracted to the established refuges, and more geese have been holding in areas like Campbell Pond, Carlyle Lake, and Cache River area."

The weekly aerial census has been conducted since 1956, and has indicated that "geese are arriving later in Southern Illinois and leaving earlier each year," said Whitton.

This year the goose season in the four-county area of Alexander, Union, Jackson and Williamson started about two weeks later than the usual Nov. 12 to 14 start. The season also closed about two weeks earlier, on Jan. 15.

This year, even with a reduced season, hunters killed more geese (over 35,000) during a 51-day season than a year ago when 17,000 geese were harvested over a 79-day season in the same area.

"The geese were not here during the first two weeks of the 1992-'93 season," said Whitton. "And, even this season, the shooting didn't really get good until late December."

Whitton, who has been counting the honkers for five seasons, said that taking a goose census is not an "exacting" science.

"Biologists fly over refuge areas each week," he said. "They may spend just a few seconds flying over an area like Horseshoe Lake, and determine that 25,000, 100,000 or even 200,000 geese are holding there."

That is a lot of geese to count in a few seconds.

"We do it by grids," said Whitton. "You get a feel for what 500, 1,000, or 5,000 geese look like from 300 feet up at 125 miles per hour. In a large flock we visualize what a grid of 5,000 geese would look like. Then we calculate how many grids there are in a particular concentration."

There is another variation, however. "We have to look at spacing between the geese," said Whitton. "On cold days the geese hover closer together, and it takes a smaller grid to make up 2,000 or 5,000 geese. On warmer days they may be more widely dispersed, with fewer geese in the same grid."

Whitton admits this is something you don't read how to do.

"I worked with two 30-year veterans before I could come up with figures that I felt would be acceptable."

The biologists who participate in the count formulate their own counts independently, then compare notes.

"Surprisingly, in most instances we arrive at similar figures," said Whitton. "Where there is a discrepancy we try to arrive at a figure we can all find acceptable. This may entail making another swing around the particular area.

"It's a difficult job," said Whitton. "You're flying low and you're flying fast, and on some days it's a three-hour chore. In most areas you fly in a figure-8 or a circle."

Whitton said the route starts at the Williamson County Airport, where the biologists meet the Department of Conservation plane.

"We count everything south of Marion," said Whitton. "We swing from the immediate Marion area across the Ohio River to the Ballard County Refuge, then to Swan Lake area near Wickliffe, Ky., and back to Horseshoe, Union County and Crab Orchard. Some days we'll make the swing in a couple of hours; other times it's a three-hour trip."

The counting gets more difficult when the hunting season closes.

"We have to hunt for the birds then," said Whitton. "They'll move off the refuge area into nearby fields. And this time of year geese are hard to see in a soybean or corn field."

Although the count in Southern Illinois has been around the half-million mark during the past two or three years, Whitton remembers a day in 1989 when the count topped 850,000.

"When we flew over Horseshoe Lake, I counted about 360,000 geese," said Whitton. "I thought I had really blown the count. When the swing around the lake was completed, everybody looked at each other. They hesitated to report their count, they were so high. But we all agreed that the Horseshoe Lake Refuge, indeed, did have about 350,000 geese there."