Waterfowl Reports

[BoxMN]

I just drove a bunch in the greater east metro area looking for ducks, just to see if any are around. Pretty slim pickins, even though I wasn't expecting much, I saw even less than I expected. Hopefully some are still moving down.

I was specifically looking for divers on larger water bodies, and only saw one decent flock (ringbill) working one lake, and a lone pair (ringbill) on another real close to metro lake, other than that just a fair amount of coots and some scattered geese and a handfull of swans.

Saw one woodduck, some small groups of mallards on small sloughs, and some turkeys proudly standing guard over a pond

I still am planning to go out Sat morning, but not expecting much except a nice sunrise...

[Roosterslayer05]

Got three mallards on Tuesday morning. Saw hundreds of divers milling about. Mostly ringbills and buffies. Could have limited out but my dog started breaking when the birds were coming into the decoys. He screwed me over on a pair of mallards, a pair of buffies, and a single buffie. He hasn't done that in 5 years. I'll have to break him of that real quick.

New birds pushed in Monday night. Looked like mostly buffies and ringbills. The mallards I saw were still locals and were very few in numbers. More birds pushed in during the day Tuesday and Tuesday night. I didn't hunt today but driving around running errands I saw a decent amount of goldeneyes. Threw the grapevine I heard of guys limiting out on divers this morning from a few different people. The birds are moving boys! The divers are on the move, but few if any mallards have pushed into the far northern reaches of the state.

[BrdHunter01]

Last weekend we started seeing new birds coming down. Lots of cans coming through still. I can't believe the amount of cans we've seen this year and yet the limit is one? We did witness one group of four guys drop at least 10 cans. They were checked by the DNR at the landing. I hope they got tagged.

Sunday and Monday we saw some bigger flocks of mallards coming down, we also bagged a wigeon and a gadwall.

The nice weather has provided a trickle of migrating birds all year.

[Stringerless!]

Saw some cans,bills and goldies in the metro so decided to try north metro lake. Saw about 8 mallards,3 woodies and 2 large flocks of divers . Think they were ringies. None of the above birds came close enough to merit shouldering the gun. One of the big flocks was 30 birds and the other roughly 50.

[Lunker]

Hunted yesterday afternoon/evening and watched a steady stream of cans the entire time. Pretty much everything was high. Fired once, one bird. Redhead. Birds are here, just another matter of being right place right time.

[Kettle]

Seeing more birds in the Grand Rapids area, more mallards!

Kettle

[Stringerless!]

At work in Maple Grove today I noticed more mallards. Been working at the site about 3 weeks now and have only seen one pair and 5 woodies in small holding pond. Today there were about 50. Also noticed mallards in freeway ponds on the way home that have not had a bird in them all year. Could not hunt tonight. Report in am.

[brittman]

I was through out WC MN today. Little pheasant hunting and a lot of scouting. There was not many ducks out there, but three sloughs were holding quite a few ducks. All were public land.

[Stringerless!]

Not to be today. Saw 2 pairs of mergies,5 woodies.2 goldies and 8 geese. That was it. Chisago county. Barely any shots heard. Makes me think it wasn't just my spot.

[BrdHunter01]

Steady stream of Cans are still coming. More mallards around, no big push has happened. Saw some buffies, mergs, ringers.

Still a steady stream of multiple species flying through the state.

[huskie0302]

What's the report around Rogers area? I have seen less geese than I have ever seen is this true with others?

[fishersofmen]

Same for me as far as geese.....fewest I have seen in many years.

[Stringerless!]

Saw a mergie flying way across the lake. Heard 3 shot volleys. Not a goose seen or heard.

[water rat]

DEAD ...

Besides a few educated pockets of stale birds. We need some serious help from ol mother nature!

For the first time in a long time I didn't go out this am, last 2 1/2 days taught me to get a project done today instead ..

Get ready to see giant fat mallards!! About a week after season closes ....

[neptune]

Got out yesterday for my second time ever (and second weekend in a row). Hunting around Buffalo area. We didn't see much except for a few far off groups of ducks and one large group of Geese in a nearby farm field. Then we saw a couple groups of cans fly right over our spot after we had pulled the decoys and were standing next to the trucks. Go figure.

[Roosterslayer05]

Hunted with a buddy Friday and Saturday. Limited out Friday and shot three bonus geese. Buffies, ringbills and redheads in that order. Saturday shot 8 ducks in the same spot. Buffies, ringbills and redheads again. Scouted a different area Saturday evening and witnessed thousands of mallards and geese feeding in corn fields. Get ready this weekend boys, the birds will be pushing your way.

[Bryce]

Had a flock of snows go over my jobsite west of New Ulm this morning. Weather could for all intents and purposes put an end to the season depending on how it plays out. Next 3-7 days could get dirty. Or not. Nodak bound Thursday night for 5 days to see what plays out. Really won't be completely surprised if I have to come back east to squeeze in a couple big water hunts.

[Todd Caswell]

Had a flock of snows go over my jobsite west of New Ulm this morning. Weather could for all intents and purposes put an end to the season depending on how it plays out. Next 3-7 days could get dirty. Or not. Nodak bound Thursday night for 5 days to see what plays out. Really won't be completely surprised if I have to come back east to squeeze in a couple big water hunts.

sounds crazy but I have friends leaving for Saskatchewan Friday, they have left 2nd weekend in Nov. For the past 6 years and always pilled them up. I'd be a bit nervous with the for cast, but there not worried a bit.

[Feathers Rainin]

sounds crazy but I have friends leaving for Saskatchewan Friday, they have left 2nd weekend in Nov. For the past 6 years and always pilled them up. I'd be a bit nervous with the for cast, but there not worried a bit.

Southern SK is loaded right now. That may change early next week if the forecast holds. We'll be heading to Nodak next Wednesday. This time of a year is a roll of the dice but there are big rewards.

[BrdHunter01]

Just wrapped up a long stint of ducking. Here's the report:

Friday - bagged a few with lots of divers around and some mallards coming down.

Saturday and Sunday - were nearly a bust bagging only 2 mallards on Saturday and one on Sunday.

Monday - was lights out. Ducks were suddenly everywhere. Bagged 11 ducks for two of us. Should of had our limit but 'can fever' took over. We passed on a lot of shots trying to ID ducks. We also had to leave by 10am. The mallards were coming down in flocks of 50-100 with most landing in the middle of the lake where they were safe. We had a mixed bag of blue bills, cans, mallards, widgeon, and gadwall. We saw buffies and had a flock of pintails we should have shot at which didn't come back.

Tuesday - BUST! All the birds had moved through. Very little for divers. A few very leery flocks of mallards. Practically nothing flying compared to Monday.

Seems like the birds are starting to move with deer season just around the corner.

[monstermoose78]

Was out this morning and we did not see much except some seagulls chasing some ducks around the lake early. When the rain started bingo we had ducks coming in we missed a few of the first shots. Then we had a flock of buffies come in hard and well not one made it out. I know am pretty sure both of us shot triples and for me that is amazing. I have shout out to Gordie Thank you!! We would have stayed long but I had a meeting for school at noon. We saw redhead, mallards, ringers, spoonies, and some other we could not make a positive ID on. So we did not shoot at the ones we were not sure about. Which was came in as we were picking up the decoys.

[Stringerless!]

Scrambled to get out after work tonight. Never saw a duck. Never heard a goose. Heard one single shot from Forest lake. Heard migrating Tundra swans while picking up dekes.

[fish_hunt_guy]

Nice day monday birdhunter! Were u hunting in MN.

[BoxMN]

Didn't see that many birds this am, but we got a few buffies and still were able to be at work by 8:30 (9:30 for my brother, he has a drive). We hoped to capitalize on the "lots of birds" reports we were hearing, but not so much in our part of the north metro. Two came in perfect and fell, and while we were reloading after a couple cripple shots three more came in. Should have had 5, but got three and one beaker my bro chased but couldn't catch up to.

Saw a few more, but not much. Off the lake before 8.

Nice morning to be out there!

[Gophereyes]

Nice quick morning! Hoping to get out on Saturday with my son in the south metro. Hopefully will have some birds here.

[BrdHunter01]

Nice day monday birdhunter! Were u hunting in MN.

Yes, I hunt mostly the South Zone, not to far from the Central Zone.

[Ebiz]

Hunted yesterday morning, north metro - few flocks of ducks moving around early but wanted nothing to do with decoying. LOTS of geese flying around between 7:30 and 8:30 but mostly to the east of me and on a mission, looked like they had likely discovered some fresh picked fields.

Did get buzzed by three mallards while I was watching the geese off in the distance, go figure...

[Stringerless!]

Northern Washington county. Saw one flock of 6-8 and another flock of 10. Too far away to even take a guess what they were. Never heard a shot. Never heard a goose. Never saw any high flying migrants.

[Archerysniper]

Lots of new birds on the water today in northern chisago county

[monstermoose78]

Lots of new ducks around Princeton as well. My buddy went this morning with a friend and got 7 Mallards, a redhead, 2 ringers, 2 buffies.