Waterfowl Report



Migrator Man

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Good thing new ones will migrate in
That is not exactly true. The migration is not what it used to be . The last few years the main migration blew through ND in less than a week. Birds are staying farther north later in the season because more high energy crops are now being grown up there than before. You may not notice this since you are down in SD.

The mid season lulls are pretty frustrating when you have people busting roosts.
 

HammsRMK

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Well we are back from up north. We were about 6 hours north of the boarder, and there were no snow geese to be found. We did see maybe 5000 on the drive up and maybe 8000-9000 on the way home (different time of day). We did have a little success with honkers one morning we shot our limit plus 9 ducks. Weather was tooooo nice. We hunted four mornings and the only day we did good was cloudy. Other than that we had sun and no wind talking 0-maybe 10 mph with temps in the mid 40's during the day and upper 20's at night. We were told by most farmers we were a week to two weeks late. I myself believe the birds went back north with the crappy weather down here. I could be wrong but that's my thoughts.
 

Kurtr

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we had a huge push over night from saturday to sunday. My kid is going to get some good hunting in with grandpa this weekend while i am out in idaho
 


Duckslayer100

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Took No. 1 son out on Sunday. Hit a spot that doesn't fail to at least produce a few ducks. And that's what we got! Very few birds flying. Decoyed one nice flock of mallards, otherwise it was spotty singles. Also called in a lone cackler that dropped out of the stratosphere. He was definitely lonely! Came home with a mallard, redhead, greenwing, bluewing and the cackler. Called it a day at 9 am, which was a plenty long sit for a 5 year old on a cold fall morning. Tried our luck at a quick walk for pheasants, too, but nada. It was a nice day to be out, at least!
 

love2hunt

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four of us hunted yesterday in general area of sharon/aneta area. Got our limit of ducks over transition slough but it was very tough going. Shot just about every specie of duck known to this area including some divers with very few mallards being seen. Took us until 10:30 to get the limit and was foggy as hell out so tough to see them until they were in our face but fun day. Drove 250 miles on Sunday and saw exactly 0 geese in the air, field and water. Also only saw one big flock of mallards which consisted of about 50 to 75 birds on slough we hunted. Don't know where they are but they were not on all the backroads i've hunted them the last 15 years. Full color birds were scaup, gadwall and greenwing teal.
 

Migrator Man

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four of us hunted yesterday in general area of sharon/aneta area. Got our limit of ducks over transition slough but it was very tough going. Shot just about every specie of duck known to this area including some divers with very few mallards being seen. Took us until 10:30 to get the limit and was foggy as hell out so tough to see them until they were in our face but fun day. Drove 250 miles on Sunday and saw exactly 0 geese in the air, field and water. Also only saw one big flock of mallards which consisted of about 50 to 75 birds on slough we hunted. Don't know where they are but they were not on all the backroads i've hunted them the last 15 years. Full color birds were scaup, gadwall and greenwing teal.
I think he high school and college kids have been laying the hurt on the Canada geese out east. I have seen some big piles of geese this early season so I wouldn’t be surprised if they put a dent in the population.
 

snowkiller

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snows and cranes were migrating pretty good yesterday.
 


measure-it

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10/11-3:45pm: Was East & South of Bismarck today, and a few more birds have moved in....couple hundred cranes, a few blacks, and a bunch of spoonbills! I did see a few more ducks, but no great #s of mallards yet.
 

Bfishn

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Lots of cranes flying over my house in Bismarck at lunch
 

Retired-Guy

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Lots of geese on the move today over Bismarck. Is this going to be another fall where the migration occurs all at once and the birds just breeze on through? Argh!
 

eyexer

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The lasts three days they've been flying through Williston to beat hell. I've never seen that here before. And they were coming from the Northwest. I think they left Canada and flew to Medicine Lake. Fueled up and are headed SE.
 


jdinny

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Lots of geese on the move today over Bismarck. Is this going to be another fall where the migration occurs all at once and the birds just breeze on through? Argh!

there was groups of guys laying waste to snow geese along the SD border into thanksgiving last year....they don't blow through like many on here claim
 

Migrator Man

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there was groups of guys laying waste to snow geese along the SD border into thanksgiving last year....they don't blow through like many on here claim

Your talking snow geese. They like roosting on big water which will be all that is left soon. The big push of mallards and Canada’s has been under a week affair the last couple years. If it warms back up soon the only birds left in the state will be around the big lakes.
 

jdinny

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Your talking snow geese. They like roosting on big water which will be all that is left soon. The big push of mallards and Canada’s has been under a week affair the last couple years. If it warms back up soon the only birds left in the state will be around the big lakes.
i agree 100% on the big water comment but i guess that really isn't my point i was trying to make. I can personally guarantee you if you find open water you will find snows and when you find snows you will find ducks and darks

im not on here to argue and am being 100% honest these birds hang on a lot longer than most people could imagine. ducks included

- - - Updated - - -

my point being that there is more waterfowling left away from the river than may mnay people would imagine
 

Sparky2_1

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Where I am dear hunting, we drove around and there are 2 big lakes open and all the snows darks and ducks are gone in the central part of the state
 

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