bird migration moving west???

raider · Oct 24, 2020

i started seeing big flocks of cranes a month ago - big flocks of northern ducks 2 weeks ago - and huge numbers of snows and blues heading south and southeast this week... i haven't seen the big flocks of geese like these since growing up by devils lake in the 70's...

is the flyway moving west, or is it just the weather pattern and storms this year???

(williston - watford area)

guywhofishes · Oct 24, 2020

I suppose it has to do with what’s going on in Canada. Maybe avoiding large cities due to COVID.

Kurtr · Oct 24, 2020

It’s seems there has been a shift west in the last decade

riverview · Oct 24, 2020

most defiantly

Migrator Man · Oct 24, 2020

raider said:
i started seeing big flocks of cranes a month ago - big flocks of northern ducks 2 weeks ago - and huge numbers of snows and blues heading south and southeast this week... i haven't seen the big flocks of geese like these since growing up by devils lake in the 70's...

is the flyway moving west, or is it just the weather pattern and storms this year???

(williston - watford area)

They have been jumping over the state and not stopping because of the high energy crops they are now growing up in Canada. There Was a study that showed specklebelly geese hopping from Canada all the way to Kansas in one flight. There is a reason people hunt Canada over ND now

7mmMag · Oct 24, 2020

It has moved west without a doubt. I have been saying this for years.

sl1000794 · Oct 24, 2020

Migrator Man said:
They have been jumping over the state and not stopping because of the high energy crops they are now growing up in Canada. There Was a study that showed specklebelly geese hopping from Canada all the way to Kansas in one flight. There is a reason people hunt Canada over ND now

Are they flying Alaska Air or Delta. That's a long flight. Hope they get First Class!

NDbowman · Oct 24, 2020

It certainly seems like the migration is moving further west every year. Anyone want to guess why? Possibly the change in crops grown throughout the state? More Corn and beans in the mid to eastern parts. Maybe more cropland or different crops in Canada?

NDSportsman · Oct 25, 2020

It's absolutely been moving west since at least the late '80s. Following the small grains, much more corn and beans being planted in eastern ND then even 10 years ago. Waterfowl prefer small grains.

eliminator · Oct 25, 2020

tons of geese in the coleharbor riverdale area now----fields are white

5575 · Oct 25, 2020

Yea we've never had geese like this.

RPNLPS · Oct 25, 2020

eliminator said:
tons of geese in the coleharbor riverdale area now----fields are white

Seen millions of snows last fall up there on the river ! Curious as to if that was normal ? The snows usually were way east of here back in the day ! I’m sure a lot of geese end up where ever the wind blows ! Also l think more and more Canada’s each year become domesticated living in populated areas knowing they won’t be shot lol!
Mother Nature is always being unpredictable that’s the finest part of loving the outdoors!

Allen · Oct 25, 2020

Having grown up in the New Town area, I think I can say that there were plenty of waterfowl moving south in that area during the 1980s. Effectively, they seem to follow the Prairie Pothole Region of ND. And the western edge of that roughly starts in western ND and hugs the Missouri all the way south and into SD. I suppose the USFWS efforts over the past century to produce stop over points in western ND for waterfowl has had some effect on this (Audubon, Ilo, White Lake, etc).

Some years they follow the western edge of the PPR whereas other years they tend to be more concentrated in the central part of it (Kenmare-Devils Lake) and even other years the flights seem to concentrate from DL and east.

Last year at this point I saw incredible numbers of birds in the Pipestem and James River areas following the late fall snow and rains that left huge fields inundated and gave them great roosts in which they could swim around and browse the unharvested beans. I don't know if waterfowl as a whole have preferred crops, they probably do. But small grains and row crops are now all the way across ND where in the 80s there were not so many row crops in the western one-third of the state.

I guess the only pattern I think I've noticed over the years is that the southward migration is spread across a 200 mile swath of ND in the fall, but the northward migration tends to be more concentrated (maybe 100 miles wide) come the spring flights. But that is also probably an anecdotal observation as opposed to something one can scientifically support with unbiased data.

raider · Oct 25, 2020

growing up in the dl area, we, and pretty much everyone else swathed all but the sunflowers... the stubble probably averaged a foot tall, and most of it was cultivated, disced, or plowed under in the fall... lots of feeding acres...

now with all the no-till at least out west, the stubble is probably 18-24" tall, and is left that way... will the geese land in stubble that high??? have always wondered that and if that might have been keeping them east of here... you rarely see them in the stubble out here, but maybe that's because of the low numbers...

Kurtr · Oct 25, 2020

raider said:
growing up in the dl area, we, and pretty much everyone else swathed all but the sunflowers... the stubble probably averaged a foot tall, and most of it was cultivated, disced, or plowed under in the fall... lots of feeding acres...

now with all the no-till at least out west, the stubble is probably 18-24" tall, and is left that way... will the geese land in stubble that high??? have always wondered that and if that might have been keeping them east of here... you rarely see them in the stubble out here, but maybe that's because of the low numbers...

yep they will land in there and it makes a great hide for the lay out blinds. Early that’s what I prefer to hunt

PrairieGhost · Oct 25, 2020

Raider like you I grew up near Devils Lake, but in the late 50s and early 60s. When I moved to Jamestown in 1971 people were still paying $3 to $4k to farmers bordering Arrowood National Wildlife refuge to hunt geese. At that time there was little to no sunflowers north of I94. I suppose there are other reasons for the migration to move west, but the late harvest of sunflowers and even corn is one of the reasons. Geese love corn especially when its cold and they need calories. They dont however lsnd in standing corn. Weather cycles, agriculture practices, and food availability will push migration to the the best food resources.

feather_duster · Oct 26, 2020

blame non residents....way too damn many this year...lottery:;:thumbsup

jdinny · Oct 26, 2020

i think the exploding snow, ross, cackler, speck population is to "blame" for some of this shift west.
its pretty easy to say they all migrate west but DL, cando, carrington, 281 corridor is stacked with geese every fall how much of this "shift west" is due to the fact that goose populations and nesting colonies have exploded and there just that many more geese as opposed to them all going west?
just a little food for thought. they have certainly learned to stage on the big lake, the river and anything else that stays open late

snow · Oct 26, 2020

Well here in central minn saturday evening wilst smoking a cigar in my man cave throwing a retrieving dumby for my best friend,I watched waves of mallards drop through the low ceiling from the stratosphere,putting the brakes on with wings cupped dropping almost straight down in to a small water shed near my home as it got dark,went over to take a look and must of been 1000's of mallards bobbing around,sunday brought big numbers of honkers,mostly lessers that dropped in to a small slough/lake across from my house,neighbors left they're decoy's out all day had a couple dozen white asses tipped up right in they're spread.

but agreed about the dakota fall migration,buddies use to hunt the DL area many years ago now head as far west as the river.

Come spring hunting snows migrating north seems 50 miles either way of the james river is the ticket.

dblkluk · Oct 26, 2020

West ward shift is nothing new. in the 70's and early 80's it was rare to see a snow goose west of Leeds

bird migration moving west???

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