Waterfowl Reports

[bmc]

I've been out scouting (by vehicle) the last 3 days here in western Itasca County.

One word will sum my report up.........DISMAL!!!

I haven't seen more than a handful of ducks and even less geese in the last 3 days. Not sure what the heck happened.......hard to imagine this colder weather has chased them out.

Hoping for some birds to show up this weekend as I start a stretch of 6 days off.

Brian

[Gordie]

Just watched over 500 geese go over the house looked like they were headed to the Sand Dunes refuge.

[Stringerless!]

Carlos Avery this morning. Kicked about 100 geese and 300 ducks out on our way in. Had a few teal in the dekes and woodies buzzing us about ten minutes before legal. Never picked up the gun. Saw one guy drop a duck way in the weeds with no hope of recovery. Only duck we saw. Not many shots heard at all. No high flying migrators seen either. Discouraging.

[icecold]

minnesota river valley fort ridgly area , very poor, saw 15 ducks total, hunting a very good slough no ducks, really discouraging.

[tracker x-2]

Scott Co.

Very few ducks around there are some geese flying though

[Stringerless!]

Greenhead this morning. Saw about 8 woodies and a hoodie drake. Another pair of mallards flared as I lunged for my gun like a fool. Most seen just flying over lake, not working us at all. NO geese seen or heard. Big water. Well, big for Chisago county. Another morning of sitting in the boat wondering what in the world is going on ? Where are the birds now ? Stayed out till ten and bet we did not hear 20 distant shots all morning.

[icecold]

worse than yesterday saw 2 teal .got 1 and no mallards to be seen or wooducks here in brown county along minnesota river

[Troy Smutka]

10/27/13 Hutchinson Area

Cold front Friday moved a new wave of divers through. Five guys bagged twenty-four ducks and two geese on Saturday, including a limit of both cans and redheads. Two guys on Sunday bagged eight ducks of five species, all divers but one. Mallards and geese are still in low numbers in central MN, with mostly educated resident birds. It appeared that many of the divers that came down Friday and Saturday kept moving through--had to be there at the right time to get them. Still waiting for cold and snow in Canada to move down mallards, bluebills, goldeneyes, and big geese.

[dan z]

Nice hall of white bellies

[Skjefte]

Went to SE North Dakota this weekend and have never seen so many birds flying in my life! Now getting them to decoy was another thing. Due to there being no cloud cover all weekend all the mallards were extremely high and on a straight path south. We did however do pretty well during the evening. We actually had a few hundred come all the way down and tornado in on us! In all we got our 4 man limit everyday consisting of mostly greenheads. We had to work for them though a lot of hours in the blind.

[Proskier2038]

North central nodak was slowwwww last week- everything pushed south and nothing came in from the north- snows were in though- what was around was very decoy/call shy

[CANOPY SAM]

What Skjefte says, that right there tells you an awful lot about what route the birds are now taking south.

We've got a fair number of big geese up here in the NW region, but not huge numbers by any means. A few flights of ducks buzzing around, but again, nothing to get very excited about.

Spent Friday and Saturday on the east end of Lake of the Woods. Fair numbers of divers around, but surprisingly few geese.

On a promising note, the long range forecast calls for colder then average temps, and above normal precipitation, so at least we should see some of the push get moving our way a little earlier this year. Maybe?

[Stringerless!]

Field tonight. Never saw a bird in the sky till I started wrapping it up. 6:07 first pair of geese. Gun already unloaded and car in the dekes. Couple minutes later there were flocks of geese everywhere. Why would geese that were pouring into field at 4 pm a week ago suddenly start coming after legal ?

[Finlander]

Taking lessons from deer!

[CANOPY SAM]

Nice mild weather....at least to a goose.

[waterfowl101]

geese around my area have been feeding anywhere from 540pm to 620, for the past 3 weeks, really weird

[Stringerless!]

That makes me feel better waterfowl 101. A new party has been given permission and I had visions of them shooting late every night. Just my imagination I hope.

[CANOPY SAM]

Stringer, it's also very likely that they've been shot out of more than one nearby field since the season opened till sunset. They all start coming out much later, real fast, once the season stays open later in the day. They get smart quick, or they land permanently.

[fishuhalik]

Get the autos cleaned & oiled, get out the super magnums & dust off the heavy camo jackets. It's migration time!! I dunno about you guys, but I've been looking forward to the next 2 weeks for 50 weeks now. Should be seeing a lot of fresh mallards snows & honkers. Guessing "The Big Push" is gonna happen any day now, if it hasn't already started. Most smaller potholes froze over last night, bigger potholes are frozen around the edges. Guessing alotta ponds in Canada will be locked up in the next 3 days.

[booger]

Hunted the north metro, missed 2 Buffies and a ringbill. The ringbill burned me while I was messing with my cover.

There were quite a few birds on the lake (no other hunters) I also had swans fly right over the top of me. Local geese are still around also. There was thin ice around some of the cattails. The birds on the lake were very skittish they got up and landed back where they were a few times for seemingly no reason. They all left (but came back) after I missed. Not sure if I was seeing some of the same birds but saw a couple bigger flocks of about 20 and 40. Also some singles and some smaller bunches that didn't really give me a look.

[Musky Buck]

Out raking sat.,sun,mon., doing deer stands etc, never saw a duck or a goose. Geese I'm told have found a field no one is allowed to hunt and at 440 acres they'll be in there awhile unless they can overgraze it, but being safe they'll hang there for awhile or until the big $ boys show up and lease it for video hunting etc. that's the only way that field gets hunted.

[dan z]

I always chuckle at the big push. Yes there is a major push but asany days as I get out I usually see some type of migration. I seen the 1st loon the other day and that's usually a tell tale sign of the start of a push coming. I can't wait for the guys to put on the blaze orange as it opens up some water space. Were having a pretty good year as the numbers show 49 ducks and 24 geese in the bag. Our goal is 100 ducks a season. And all the geese are just bonus. We haven't had a year less than 100 ducks for a few years so its been pretty good recently. And to top it off its usually less than an hour for from the the garage and its 95% public land.

[Stringerless!]

Nice job Dan ! Geese were a complete no show tonight. Did hear a few distant shot volleys. 19th hunt this season. Goal of 40 hunts is not looking good as time change is gonna screw me for going out after work.

[Bryce]

Working on the north side of Rochester. Tonite was the biggest flight of geese seen yet by far. Not sure if that means new birds or a shift in the feeding pattern.

[Pherris]

The farmer who's land we hunt in No Dak called yesterday and said that the mallards started piling into his sloughs on Monday we are heading out tomorrow.

[onthefly]

Good to hear, Pherris! Headed that way Friday morning for a 6 day run.

[FowlSki]

I always chuckle at the big push. Yes there is a major push but asany days as I get out I usually see some type of migration. I seen the 1st loon the other day and that's usually a tell tale sign of the start of a push coming.

If you do not believe in a final big push you have never seen one. In my 15 years of duck hunting I have been fortunate enough to hit it twice. When you can hear the roar of the ducks getting up from miles away and the mass stretches the entire horizon literally blocking out the sun you will believe in "the big push". Certain years there reaches a tipping point where a large amount of the ducks decide to boogie because everything is locking up. It will probably only last a day or two and most of the ducks will do a flyover but if you can time it right it is a sight to see. It may not happen every year depending on the weather but when it does it is something to witness.

Yes there is a trickle migration throughout the season but there is also a major push on certain years and if you don't believe in it you have never seen it. Hunting will be good before and after the push but during it is nothing short of spectacular.

We have found a decent number of divers the last couple of weeks and put the hurt on em. I wish I could have been out yesterday morning. There was a nice push of birds after the low temps and winds in Canada. If the weather patterns hold we should have a good number of birds on the move starting next week.

[BrdHunter01]

Weekend Report (as usual):

Saturday was a mixed bag of 8 between 4 of us. No mallards, although we should have taken a few.

Sunday we never fire our guns. Little wind in the morning and little ducks on the move.

Monday started slow but around 8:00am the mallards showed for the 1st time all year! Flocks of 20-60 setting into the decoys. Two us ended with our 8 greenheads by 10:30. Never saw another flock as we were picking up or on our way off the lake. We also bagged a bonus blackduck 20 minutes before sunrise.

[dan z]

Fowl ski trust me I have seen it! I just chuckle when people only hunt when the big push is in the works. Kinda like walleye fisherman they only fish when the waters prime temp.

[fishuhalik]

I hear ya Dan. As long as ducks are out there, I'm hunting em! I don't need to see 1,000,000 birds to have a good day! I've only seen the big push once. Temp dropped 60 degrees overnight in Canada and all the birds up there were forced to leave in one big migration. Pretty cool to see!