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Waterfowl Reports


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This morning I saw the first Wood duck of the season it was flying up and down a creek near Becker

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have been working down in Whitewater wildlife management area towards Weaver and the wood ducks showed up late last week along with the hooded mergansers, but the mergies have since moved on.. All kinds of mallards around there, every morning they are sitting in a flooded cornfield next to the road. Just on Monday the spooners have shown up. Sure is hard to start working when there is all kinds of ducks flying around. Also a few sandhills around the area as well.

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  • 1 month later...

The wood ducks are sitting on their nests,seems the houses are being used more than other years.Maybe a good sign for the future.

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No. No waterfowl will raise two broods in the same year that I know of. Most will renest if the first attempt is unsuccessful however - I think that's where people get confused and say "second hatch" sometimes.

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I still have a pair of buffies and a couple pairs of Bluebills hanging around. The bluebills have been hear awhile now so either they are going to stay the season or they know something we don't wink.

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  • 3 months later...

I am reporting that I had seen several flocks of geese flying around and into Cleary Lake as I biked around it! You could sure tell the juvies were having there dips and spins in the air which is great humor!

Won't be long now! grin

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I around quite a bit for work and the last two weeks there has been tons of geese working the freshly cut fields. Seems like all the geese are flying now but the ducks are a different story. I have seen some that look like they just hatched in the last couple of weeks.

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Found some birds with white cheeks on the morning S>K>PADE. I know its early but why wait. cant beleive its already here. grin

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This past week I spent the whole week on Eagle Lake near Cromwell and saw alot of duck and was surprised at how many divers were in the area two broods of Bluebills, one brood of redheads and a few ring necks were there along with a bunch of mallards. Out of all of these birds I only saw one young hen mallard with a small duckling the rest of these ducks were all able to take flight as I watched them fly in and out of the bay we were staying on. Should be a good opener if your in the right area of the state.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Guess ill be the first to report from the morning!

Our party got 15.. the east wind really killed us having to take a lot of over head shots. Didnt hear to much other shooting. Hope to get a few more tonight Ill be taking my 11yr old cousin out tonight for his first shoot so I really hope to get a little action or at least a crow (that looks like is about to do damage):)

how did everyone else do?

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Pope county very few geese right now. There are a few flocks here and there but way below normal. early hatch must have promoted some type of false migration.

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As I posted in a different spot we seen one and shot one in Isanti county. We did do a little scouting and found a good spot with some geese for tomorrow morning.

I was surprised by the number of mallards flying around.

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Yesturday I went by a nice little spot and their were 30-40 woodies sittng on the branches of the broken trees in the water on this little river. this was around noon.

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Ended up with 3 this morning running traffic but had a ton give us a look but wouldn't quite commit. Will be trying a little different set up tommorrow to hopefully persuade them a little more.

I could have had quite a few mallards though.

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not to many geese flyin where im at, but the ducks. ive never seen this many ducks around my area. i cant wait for the 22nd!

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not to many geese flyin where im at, but the ducks. ive never seen this many ducks around my area. i cant wait for the 22nd!

Same thing for me. We havent seen many geese, but we had probably 50 ducks fly by us on opener!

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  • 2 weeks later...

AWESOME hatch of redheads, pins, cans, mallards, teal and shovelers this year in western NoDak! I also have the unique privilage of driving through the state and back every 2 weeks. STRONG hatches in the dl area as well. Tonight in a 12 mile stretch of hwy 94 I passed by 4 fields with multiple thousands of honkers. One had 10k strong. I wrote down mile markers, pm me if you have your early season NoDak stamps smile

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I always get uneasy when I hear record numbers or near record numbers, and why are those geese in such massive flocks already ? Maybe that's why we haven't hardly seen a goose since it opened. 4 different counties I hunt in and it's not worth trying, there are few around or they just don't want to fly ? Last year record ducks or something and I'm not sure we saw any ducks, is it tough to find fields for geese ? It's all corn and beans primarily and with no small dairy farmers anymore they aint choppin corn or planting oats ? So the honkers moved west to find the fields ?

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The numbers could be low in your area but high elsewhere, not based on your area. You say the same stuff every year about this topic. The Molt Migration is going on now with the NW wind lately so most of these flocks are bigger than the locals. Happens every year and is is when the hunting picks up.

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All I know is that with the great rainfall northern NoDak got this year, potholes are full of ducks and geese. Being a MN duck hunter my whole life, it just blows my mind every time I drive by a pothole. In MN, there'll be a family, maybe 2 in a good body of small water. I've seen several potholes under an acres with over 100 ducks in them. And every little splash of water has at least a couple families. I can't wait to see what this place looks like during migration. I was in nodak about 5 years ago and saw the beginnings of it. Oh man, can't wait!!!!

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

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