Waterfowl Reports

[nlayne882 40]

 

 Every once in awhile you will see them on lake superior, but not too often. 

[Big Country 50]

Black ducks.  They appear to be hen mallards, look incredibly similar, even the males look like susies.  Use to get a few in a local slough in the Duluth area back in the 90"s.

[husky 12]

Help Id this mix 

[carpshooterdeluxe 11]

Help Id this mix 

Pintail x mallard.

[ZachD 402]

Was out scouting a couple smaller ponds in the Zimmerman area. Not much moving today kicked up 3 wood ducks but they would have been too far of a shot. Walked a small river a bit too see if anything was back there nothing. The ducks are sure loaded in all the metro ponds I drove by on the way up though

 

Need some cold weather to get some birds moving

[monstermoose78 2,472]

The woodies are in little ponds in the woods

You might even get a bonus grouse

[ZachD 402]

Yea lets bring on Saturday! hopefully things start picking up I think I may just hunt in Dayton

[CANOPY SAM 119]

This site has really tanked, and I haven't been on here for about a year, but I felt compelled to fill some of my old duck blind buddies in on the latest happenings in NW Minnesota.

From what I can see we've really hit that Late October lull time.  The vast majority of our local birds pulled out with that big full moon, and the cool clear nights last week.  I've been back and forth across the countryside quite a bit, and I'm seeing very few migratory waterfowl in the area.

With temps being what they are, and now that everything has dried out quite a bit up here, the majority of our farm fields have been cultivated and turned up black.  Pretty balmy now for this time of year.  I wouldn't expect any kind of big migration over the next week or so, but I'd imagine a few will start trickling down out of Canada here and there.

I hear things are going pretty well out in the Dakotas.  Prolly smart to head over there if you really wanna get into birds.  Just not much to speak of at all right now in Northwest Minnesota.

[fish_hunt_guy 59]

Canopy Sam glad to have you back we missed you. Keep the reports coming. We were all waiting for you to start getting the band back together again.

[fish_hunt_guy 59]

Got out for the first time this year last weekend. Opening morning got my two roosters and then started scouting. I didnt see much for birds all day until in the evening when I saw about 40-50 redheads on one pond. Set up there the next morning with my old man and we got 3 reds, 3 gwt, and a woodie and mallard drake. Next day saw more ducks on that pond as well and ended up setting up there as well the next morning. We shot 5 bluebills and 2 bonus geese that morning. Then shot a nice fat rooster that day and headed home. Im off the next 6 days after today so we'll see what kind of trouble I can get myself into. I will post pics on the other thread when i get a chance.

[Wanderer 1,992]

About the the biggest news I can come up with on this years bird info is that significantly more hooded mergs than usual have been seen in central - western MN.

 

Id like to get a nice one.

[monstermoose78 2,472]

I have been seeing gadwalls my dads pond has a pair and 3 other ponds have them to 

[monstermoose78 2,472]

 Lots of mallards, geese, and swans around

[monstermoose78 2,472]

The swans are thick. Geese are showing up in numbers and same with the cranes!

[IceHawk 1,860]

Seeing a bunch of full plumage divers, swans and geese on the sauk river near Rockville. Spring is always excitieing for a waterfowler. Put a few wood duck houses out last week and checked on the ones already in place!

[Mike89 438]

sand hill cranes here today...

[Wanderer 1,992]

March 21 - saw my first goldeneyes of the spring migration tonight.  They were cruising south so I imagine they were scouting further north but didn’t find the water they were looking for.

 

There are spots open on the river but not much around Little Falls yet.  Judging by the looks of the ice though I’ll be seeing open water by Sunday.  

[Wanderer 1,992]

March 26 I got a text from a neighbor that he saw a half dozen woodies.  Gotta take his word for it since he knows ducks but I still wanna see em with my own eyes.

 

March 27 and they’re at my place along with some hoodeds.  And we’ve only seen a few goldeneyes so far I’m calling them early birds and won’t doubt my sanity next year when the early ones show up again.

[Rick 1,052]

Time to fire this baby up again...any early goose pics and/or reports?

[monstermoose78 2,472]

Well I seen a few groups of mallards this morning and two big flicks of teal. The geese are flying high and early or late in the day

[Wanderer 1,992]

Just settling in for a 4 hour nap before launching the boat on LOW - provided we’re not in the middle of a T-storm.  South winds so that helps.  Rain doesn’t bother me but the chance of lightning does.

 

Good luck tomorrow.

[Wanderer 1,992]

Chance of lightning....  haha.  When will it stop?!  In about an hour.  Let’s load up.

[papadarv 723]

Second flock this morning. They seem to find safe feeding grounds when the guns start popping.

[Wanderer 1,992]

No doubt @papadarv!  They’re really good at it too.  The small family flocks have joined together where I’ve been seeing geese and now number 50+ typically.

 

We saw some geese and a few ducks today but didn’t shoot any.  We didn’t find anything worth setting up on.  Pretty amazing how slim the duck population is up here.  The biggest flock I’ve seen, including the drive up, numbered 5 birds.  It’s been mostly random singles and pairs.

 

The flooding up here has been amazing too.  Something like 10 inches in 25 hours.  Roads are flooded and the ditches are raging rivers.  The downstream sides of the bigger culverts look like power plant discharges.

 

We’re considering other options for tomorrow.

[Wanderer 1,992]

Ah, a couple walleyes just made it all better. 

[MJ1657 385]

 

 

Not a lot of ducks flying this morning. 

 

[monstermoose78 2,472]

Well I did not get up this morning had a good time at the wedding!! I sneaked down to my dads pond at noon and bingo. A triple yep this bad shot sniped one off a log and knocked the other two out of the air. Finn was on them ducks like flies on poop. One hen woodie dove on Finn and he tried to find her. I waited an hour and half for that hen woodie to pop up but it never happened.

[Wanderer 1,992]

Those hen woodies can be some tough customers!

 

Since I had half the state to cover on the way home I swung through a spot I wanted to hunt last year but was shut out by a storm - go figure.  I had just the last 2 hours to paddle it and see what was up.  Started pushing up birds right away; mallards and ringers.  Didn't try shooting anything till I got back in it a bit.  Found a nice 40 yard wide hole in cover and a lone mallard came by.  One shot, one dead bird.  Stuck around for the last 45 minutes, got buzzed by some teal, then time was up.  More birds showed up while I picked up.  Good chance I'll be back.

Edited September 23, 2019 by Wanderer

[Kettle 403]

I told myself I was done hunting Minnesota..... 57$ later out of the budget I'll be living off if ham sandwiches the next two weeks and one pintail and one goose..... I'm a sucker