ducks

[bigv]

So where are they? Things froze up here pretty good, even big waters partially froze. Have seen minimal movement of birds. Mostly snows and some honkers. Not much for duck movement. Spotty. Do you guys up there still have ducks or are they already tanning their feathers on the beach? Maybe passed right through at night?? I'm in northeast SD.

[riverview]

ive been wondering the same thing all fall in northern nd.

[SDMF]

Saw some Mallards on the N side of Watertown yesterday........

[AR-15]

I have lived here for 66 yrs. never have I seen so few ducks, this is in northern Burke Co, snow geese didn't stick around either, to much standing grain

[bigv]

I am thinking that too. No food and most things froze over so they probably went right through in the night?? I guess I didn't even know it started because I saw so few birds.

[MathewsZman]

[Duckslayer100]

I haven't seen a duck in a while. It's buttoned up solid in SE ND.

[HammsRMK]

Never did see many when I was up in Saskatchewan in September, and only got into two good shoots in central ND. They were feeding in standing soybeans or standing wheat that was flooded and had a hard time getting them to come out of them. I have not seen a duck in almost a month.

[zoops]

Odd year with the incredible amount of water and little harvested crop, then an early freeze. Methinks the early blizzard pushed a good number of local ducks out and then the cold last week (my truck read -8 at one time near McKenzie when I went out on Monday morning) finished it off. ND got cold at the same time as Sask so I think it was a pretty good blow-by. When I was deer hunting last weekend there were lots of little V's of ducks going south, a guy just often doesn't notice them as they don't make noise. As always, there were some pockets and probably still are near the SD border. I was surprised to see a good 1500 ducks swarming an unharvested barley field near HWY 200 on Monday evening. Farmer said they had been there a while - no idea where they were roosting as everything had locked up nearby. They got up that evening and headed south, farmer said they were gone the next day. A lot of people think of Canada as an endless supply of ducks - I don't think that is necessarily the case anymore. Quite a few of the snow goose hunting reports from Canada I read mentioned the lack of ducks they had seen - Sask and MB were drier than average for the nesting season.

[NDSportsman]

Yep they pretty much skipped right over ND this year.

[dean nelson]

They were spread to hell and back most of the season but did see some big concentrations as things started to ice up but of course that didn't last too long.

[Griz]

Saw Mallards east of Selz Tuesday and north of Anamoose on Wednesday .
Flying out to feed . There's still some around.

[Trip McNeely]

From the way some of the biologists make it sound alot of the ducks that normally nest in prairie canada never even made it that far north to nest this spring. With the wet spring in the dakotas most just plopped down and nested. Good chance there not many ducks north yet to come this year. Guys down south should have a good season finally.

[dean nelson]

From the way some of the biologists make it sound alot of the ducks that normally nest in prairie canada never even made it that far north to nest this spring. With the wet spring in the dakotas most just plopped down and nested. Good chance there not many ducks north yet to come this year. Guys down south should have a good season finally.

That's always the catch 22 of a good production year for the Dakota's. Obviously it ends up working out that if they're already south of you before they ever get started you're screwed from the beginning. Little nervous on how next year's going to play out although South Dakota's wet spring last year definitely didnt continue into the fall at near the rate our crazy rain did but needless to say they're not remotely dry either.