Waterfowl Reports

[dan z]

Same lake as yesterday. Local ducks getting pretty smart but managed 4 today. Noticed some bigger flocks of jays... is this telling me something?

[TylerS]

Lots of geese in N.D., but ducks have been tough to come by (at least where I've been). My inkling is that many birds are still fairly far north, and with no reason to move south, they've pretty much stayed put. Some cold weather might move through this week, which combined with increased hunting pressure, could start moving ducks around. Emphasis on the "could," as I highly doubt any sort of migration will begin before at least mid to late October.

Of course, one good snow storm, and that could all change...

[CANOPY SAM]

Had a good shoot this morning. Put two greater Canadians, a mature Blue, and a mature Snow goose in the bag! Had my third honker for the limit glide on me just over the ridge and out onto the water. That was disappointing, as I know the bird was hit hard, and I had no way to retrieve it that far out.

Kind of an ugly scene this weekend...watched three young guys hunting geese from about 3/4 of a mile off. They had a beautiful spread of decoys, layout blinds, and nice camo clothes, but obviously no one ever took the time to teach these youngsters how to quickly and cleanly dispatch a wounded bird. Several times I witnessed these guys frantically run down cripples, only to beat them to death with a bat! And not just a swift strategic blow, but a full on Rodney King remake! Not pretty.

Wind is gonna howl up here today, straight outta the north. I watched several large groups lift up late in the morning, climb high into the sky, and put the north behind em'. Hope we start seeing some "replacement" birds coming down outta Canada!

[Matt Breuer]

Nice work, Matthew! Your pic this morning made me jealous, as I didn't get to shoot any snows while up this past weekend. We had hundreds flying around, and most everyone else in the crew got one, but I missed out on the big group that came in the morning I arrived...

We hit a nice pile during Goose Fest. Sunday morning I was able to join some guys for a great hunt. Piles of geese around NW MN over the weekend. On our way home last night the layers were still thick all the way down through Fosston and toward Bagley... I too am hoping a big migration happens this week. We need some fresh birds!

[CANOPY SAM]

Yea, it was pretty cool to see a large group of snows and blues over this way. We typically don't see many here vs. NoDak. Glad to hear you guys really got into em'.

Just let the dog outside, and could've filled my limit off the deck! Big bunch of honkers flew over only few feet above my head. I NEVER get tired of that!

In my experience, this early in October, all we can do is hope for a little migration. I'm willing to bet all we'll see happen is our birds in NW MN will slide a little further south.

There's still more than ample food, and open water available in Canada. Seems to me these birds get a little smarter every year, and don't come down till the very last minute, everything freezes up, and the big bulk of the northern birds blow thru in only a day or two.

If we could get a year where all the water in Canada freezes up, and what little water we have here, south of the border, stays open, oh my goodness we'd have BIRDS!

[TylerS]

WATCH THE WEATHER!!! Six inches of snow forecast for North Dakota and parts of Minnesota. Whether the meteorologist actually knows what he's talking about is another story. In any case, keep an eye on the skies...new birds should be moving through...

[upnorthozzy]

ALARMIST

[CANOPY SAM]

They might move a little. It looks like the majority of this storm is just going to skirt the border. Doesn't look to impact central Canada at all, which is what we need to move the bulk of the birds south.

Not discounting the possibility of a little migration. Just know from previous experience that it takes frozen water pretty much everywhere to get em' moving way south of central Manitoba. Don't think that's gonna happen just yet. They're pretty tough critters, and it's pretty early yet for a major migration movement.

They're now forecasting 8-10 inches of snow up here! Even though this sounds pretty "alarming", let's face it, the ground is still 60+ degrees. Even if we get 10 inches it'll be gone in a couple days at most. I'm not going to complain about a LOT of precipitation though!

[Gordie]

WATCH THE WEATHER!!! Six inches of snow forecast for North Dakota and parts of Minnesota. Whether the meteorologist actually knows what he's talking about is another story. In any case, keep an eye on the skies...new birds should be moving through...

Hopefully they don't move farther than the north zone

Thinking of taking a drive to the north zone in the morning to see if any of those birds will decoy.

[Todd Caswell]

Just Talked to buddy that was leaving Manitoba a day early because of the storm. They did very well and the light geese had just started to show up in the last couple of days

[Ray1]

These strong North winds will still push some new birds down so dont worry too much guys.

[fishuhalik]

Heavy snow for my entire drive last night. Started turning from rain to snow just north of Bismark. I just passed through Fargo and its letting up. Not sure what happened up north but my drive really sucked!

[CANOPY SAM]

I'm headed out in the blizzard in an hour for some goose hunting. It's snowing pretty hard here in TRF, and the north wind is blowing between 25-40 mph. They'll be hugging the ground in this stuff.

I'll report back what I find this afternoon.

I don't recall seeing a blizzard this early ever...

[laportian]

Planning on heading north to the Red Lake River on the rez about 2. Unless the roads get too bad. We got a nice blind in a pothole adjacent to the river about 3 miles from where it outlets from the big lake. Will report in this evening if we made it.

[CANOPY SAM]

Was out this morning for a couple hours. North wind is HOWLING! Heavy, wet, spitting snow made it virtually impossible to even look to the north.

Watched several groups of geese attempting to fly from feeding areas back to loafing areas, and they couldn't even make it! They'd jump up into the wind, fight hard for a few hundred yards, then drop back into the field.

I'd have had geese in my lap if the first few groups hadn't dropped into the field 350 yds. away downwind. Once the first group dropped in, several small groups following the same route dropped in with them. Eventually they just sort of followed each other in small groups feeding here and there on foot rather than attempting to fly into the driving wind and snow.

We've still got very strong winds, and driving snow, but it seems to be letting up at least a little, maybe? First time my 84 yr. old mother can ever remember seeing a full blown blizzard, with 6-7 inches of snow on Oct 4th!

By the number of birds I saw this morning, in neighboring fields, and while driving around after the hunt, I don't think many moved out ahead of, or during this storm.

I love hunting inclement weather cause the birds are typically very anxious to get into a good decoy spread...but this was a little much! If I would've had geese in range just upwind of me it wouldn't have been possible to look upwind and shoot. I can't imagine how it must hurt their eyes to try and fly in this kind of weather.

[laportian]

We ended heading over towards Winnie instead going up north. We set up in Cass River and didnt see too much. We were set up by 330 but we couldnt really get to our prime funnel spot as we were in a canoe and the wind was blowing way too hard. Even so we only spotted maybe 4 small flocks the entire time we were out. We pulled the plug at 7 without firing a shot. I like hunting in storms too but maybe the wind yesterday was just too much for them.

[CANOPY SAM]

Well...24 hours later and the north wind is STILL HOWLING up here! Temps dropped back down below freezing, and the wind barely let up at all thru the night.

I didn't realize this storm was going to keep going this long. Think I have to change my earlier summation that this won't move birds. This wind is coming down out of Canada, although I don't think they got the snow up there. None-the-less, I would think at least some birds would take advantage of this strong tail-wind?

After what I watched yesterday, geese that really COULDN'T fly, I'm not sure what to think anymore. I guess when she's done we'll know. I may venture out again in an hour and see what's moving. I'll report back.

[CANOPY SAM]

Ha ha ha!!! Just as I hit send on the earlier post I watched a group of 20 honkers fly over the house...heading INTO this 25 mph north wind!

What do I know for sure? It's still pretty early in the season.

[TylerS]

It will be interesting to hear. I've talked to a few guys out scouting who have been struggling to find birds in N.D. Makes me think two possibilities:

1) They've congregated and are holed up in concentrated numbers.

or

2) Migration

I know it takes a LOT to move birds, especially when there is ample food and shelter all around (harvest is WAY ahead of schedule and they have a venerable smorgasbord of spilled corn, beans and grain to hork down), but two days of freezing temps and 20-30 MPG winds, plus snow thrown in there, and I gotta think some of the "fair-weather" birds might have flown the coop. The way that storm cut through Canada, I think a handful of ducks and geese moved down, but I'd wager there is a whole bunch still staging way up north.

When it hits 80 again next week, we'll probably see all those birds that bumped south move back north again, anyway

[Bryce]

My texting machine is in near meltdown mode. Going to be very interseting tomorrow morning if the reports are even half accurate.

[CANOPY SAM]

Reports of a lot of birds filtering down to Southern Minnesota? I wouldn't be surprised.

My son just got his little front wheel drive sports car stuck in the road out front...in front of our doctor neighbor...and in front of the on-coming school bus...which was also stuck a few miles farther down the road! School was already 2 hours late, and I believe we just made them later trying to get his car moved outta the way!

Kinda cool thing when the wind pounds outta the northwest...I think some of those birds staged up around the Devils Lake area get pushed east into central Minnesota, which ultimately has them moving more down the Mississippi flyway rather than the Missouri. Bet that's what you're hearing about Bryce. Wish I lived a little farther south right now!

We have strong wind, more snow, and temps around 32 degrees till tonight. Homecoming football game is still on schedule. Gonna be a war in the wet snow tonight!

[CANOPY SAM]

I was preparing to go out and hunt in this stuff again, but I'm stranded at home now. Once we got my son's car back into our driveway he HAD to take my Suburban to school! Heaven knows, if he'd simply ridden the bus, at 16 yrs. old, he'd be labeled a complete social pariah!

I wonder if I can get 4 dozen full body decoys, 2 dozen silhouettes, my gun and shells, and the dog, on top of a 4-cylinder, front wheel drive, red Escort...with bald tires? Shoot! I forgot about the ATV!

[Todd Caswell]

Well with all this cold weather and west to north west winds I went out and checked my wood duck hole tonight and seen just as many birds 200+ leave the roost as I did on tuesday evening whrn it was 80 deg. I don't believe many warm weather birds have left YET. Good luck to all in the AM..............

[RumRiverRat]

Lots of Ringnecks and Redheads piling into Pickerel Lake in Oak Grove today just before dark.

I expect the first hunters to get there about 2am, if I was duck hunting this fall I would be at the access around midnight.

[hunter322]

Boy did some northern birds come down! Once again hunting around Osceola, wi with a budy and man the mallards! We ended up shootin a 2 man limit of mallards within 2 hours. and 2 geese to boot! didnt see one teal though and only 2 wood ducks that just about took my budys head off!

[shortfatguy]

Some of the ducks from up north must have blown south. Hunting was a lot better here last weekend in the nice weather!

[B-man715]

Seeing a lot of migrants just north of Osceola too. Went to my little wood duck honey hole and jumped 500-600 mallards!!!!!!!!! I about krapped my pants!!

Limited out in 90 minutes, with four mallards and two gadwalls. Two of them were nice full plumage two-curl drakes.

I invited a buddy, but he was working on a project. When I showed up at his house at 4pm he said, "I thought you were going duck hunting?" .........

Never shot a gadwall out there......ever. And there were quite a few flocks of them.

It's just weird.......in a good way!

Normally we wouldn't see that many birds until mid-November there. Unreal........

Going back out in the morning again. I hope my hunt lasts a little longer

[Shane Z]

Hunted pretty hard in Duluth area this weekend. Lots of birds gone and not a whole lot of news ones to be found yet. This weekend's extreme weather seemed to keep the birds at bay. I'd be willing to bet many new birds will start to trickle in during the course of the week so be prepared for a good third weekend!

[KidMoe]

Saw a ton of birds flying high early in the morning and the only birds within range were before shooting time. I wasn't sure but it was either a lot of teal or woodies this morning. Also, saw a lot of geese in the fields on my way home. Good Luck!!!

[icecold]

Just got back from williston ND , brother in law got Married on Sat, We left minnesota on thurs morning and drove through a nice little blizzard in Fargo to Bismark, I hardly saw a duck or goose until we headed north out of bismark to Minot, tons of ducks sitting in potholes along high way, but when we turned west on 2 didnt see a duck all the way to williston, On our way back today we took highway 2 from williston to grandforks, I couldnt believe all the geese and Mallards I saw starting about 20 miles west of Devils lake and then about 20 miles east of devils lake, then things shut off the closer we got to grand forks, Lots of duck boats on trailers heading out that way, I would love to hunt out there once, just cant find the time, seems like vacation time gets used up for weddings and family events Ha Ha. oh well some day it might work out, Kind of fun seeing all the birds and it isnt even the migration yet