Spring Snows

Eatsleeptrap

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South of New Rockford along 281. More overhead and a larger flock a little further south on the ground. Remember to stay away from that one guy's corn.
20250314_120128.jpg
 


1lessdog

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No one is seeing any snow or just not say? I was thinking about going to the Oakes area to see if I could find some tomorrow.
 

ndrivrrat

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No one is seeing any snow or just not say? I was thinking about going to the Oakes area to see if I could find some tomorrow.
Between Underwood and Washburn this afternoon there were literally hundreds of thousands of them. Every field had lots of snows and the sky was filled in every direction. They aren't going to last long around here Im afraid with this strong south wind and no snow pack to stop them.
 


Wall-eyes

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Hunted up by Underwood and Riverdale they were thick and many heading further north you would think snow up north would push them back.
 


Traxion

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The geese are from last fall
Yes they are, into early winter even. Still way worse than I’ve seen. A few hundred yes. Not thousands like that. Pretty crazy if you extrapolate it over the population. They say the mid continent snow goose population is 1/3rd of when the CO started. I gave up hunting them hard about 6 years ago. Never saw a difference in #’s during fall in Canada. But definitely felt the numbers I saw in the spring were less than when we started. Anecdotal at best though. And we’ll likely never know.
 

Trip McNeely

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Yes they are, into early winter even. Still way worse than I’ve seen. A few hundred yes. Not thousands like that. Pretty crazy if you extrapolate it over the population. They say the mid continent snow goose population is 1/3rd of when the CO started. I gave up hunting them hard about 6 years ago. Never saw a difference in #’s during fall in Canada. But definitely felt the numbers I saw in the spring were less than when we started. Anecdotal at best though. And we’ll likely never know.
They don’t have a fucking clue how many they’re are. When estimates range from 5-21 million it tells me they don’t really know. I don’t think the numbers have changed a lot. I think migration patterns have. We see a lot more birds both spring and fall now in central ND than we used to. The James river and devils lake used to be the hot corridor. I think it’s slowly changing. I think a lot of the James river birds have started using this corridor as it generally opens sooner. Personally most falls and many springs it feels like there are more birds than the year before. Mine opinion is anecdotal as well so I can definitely agree well probably never know when the key focus of half of America is if women can have a penis.
 


Traxion

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They don’t have a fucking clue how many they’re are. When estimates range from 5-21 million it tells me they don’t really know. I don’t think the numbers have changed a lot. I think migration patterns have. We see a lot more birds both spring and fall now in central ND than we used to. The James river and devils lake used to be the hot corridor. I think it’s slowly changing. I think a lot of the James river birds have started using this corridor as it generally opens sooner. Personally most falls and many springs it feels like there are more birds than the year before. Mine opinion is anecdotal as well so I can definitely agree well probably never know when the key focus of half of America is if women can have a penis.
I agree the migration is much farther west. The falls all felt similar, but these were known staging areas in Canada. The spring never repeats each year so much tougher to say.
 

Trip McNeely

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I agree the migration is much farther west. The falls all felt similar, but these were known staging areas in Canada. The spring never repeats each year so much tougher to say.
Very true about spring. It uses to be they slip west when they were slipping behind in the spring timeline. Now it’s like they have it figured out to just use that route to start. Maybe they are holding further north yet when you are in Canada? They are staging later and later here in the middle of ND thanks to a very big body of open water. This year is the 2nd year in a row I have witnessed “huntable” concentrations of snows well into late December up to the closing of goose season.
 

1lessdog

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They don’t have a fucking clue how many they’re are. When estimates range from 5-21 million it tells me they don’t really know. I don’t think the numbers have changed a lot. I think migration patterns have. We see a lot more birds both spring and fall now in central ND than we used to. The James river and devils lake used to be the hot corridor. I think it’s slowly changing. I think a lot of the James river birds have started using this corridor as it generally opens sooner. Personally most falls and many springs it feels like there are more birds than the year before. Mine opinion is anecdotal as well so I can definitely agree well probably never know when the key focus of half of America is if women can have a penis.
Your right about James River flyway. When season opened in 1999 from south of LaMoure was where the migration would funnel in and start spreading out. The N.D.G.F. would say it was the highest concentration of geese anywhere. They never got East to Verona or West to Edgeley. The pattern started to change about 2005. Now it seems like there is no pattern. They just fly where ever there is no snow or open water. When there was no spring season. I remember driving by 1000's of geese just off the road and they wouldn't fly. Now there hunted for roughly 8 months and there pretty jumpy. By fall they settle down a little till they start getting shot at again.
 

tikkalover

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Haven't seen or heard a snow goose around here. More honkers than you can count tho.
 

1lessdog

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Also years ago goose season closed at Noon everyday. Till time change then 1pm. The geese got smart and wouldn't leave the water till really late morning or early afternoon. The reason season was that way was so they wouldn't get shot out of the state. Then years later season would change and we could hunt geese all day on Wednesday and Saturday. Waterfowl was managed alot different back then compared to now.
 
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