Migration

[dr_weather]

Hunted Rosetown, Sask first of last week. Still lots of dark geese, especially Specs there. Saw snows from just north of Estavan all the way up. Even saw a big bunch of Cranes just outside of Outlook, Sask. Suspect this front will be pushing them, though. Most Ducks appeared to be locals, but a few of the bigger Greenies. I'm hearing there was a big kill on the juvie snows this spring due to late freeze up north. Anyway, the bulk should be here in ND soon! Good Hunting!

 

[b2down]

This morning I took a drive from Bismarck to Harvey, on to Butte, and then back to Bismarck. I saw one small flock of snows south of Hurdsfield and one big flock of snows by Martin. The blacks geese are scattered around as well as ducks. Another week and things should change for the good.

 

[dean nelson]

Birds are rolling in pretty hard now. Lots of good water spots like this filled with Bluebills and Gadwalls and a good mix of other ducks.

Geese are coming down in good numbers. Saw numerous snow goose flocks of 2 to 5000 with good numbers of Canada's and cranes and even a fair few specs.

 

[You]

nice. what region?

 

[dean nelson]

Central north of 94.

 

[tikkalover]

Came back from Tobin yesterday, snows were piled up from south of Regina to Estevan.

 

[CWS]

I live along the canadian border in NW ND i just saw 2 big groups of snows fly over withing 15 mins of each other, could have been more but those are the ones i saw. Thats the first ive heard/seen of snows that seem to be migrating, this year.

 

[NodakBuckeye]

Shoulda put in for vacation this weekend! Everything will be froze I think by the time I can get out. Dang rifle tag... haha

 

[dean nelson]

Hunted the point on the left of the first pic this morning with a buddy. It was nice to have just a good old hodgepodge hunt. We more or less took turns and were trying to pick out birds with good color. In all of the 12 ducks we got six different species and could've had seven if he could have connected on the golden eyes that strafed by a couple of times. All in all it was a nice relaxing hunt where the limit is a foregone conclusion the only thing left is what kind of limit it will be.

 

[Account Deleted]

Messed up on a goldeneye this morning too. Speedy little bugger.

 

[Kurtr]

I want a big bull can for the wall

 

[dean nelson]

Put a few Can decoys around a couple swan decoys and they suck right in.

 

[Kurtr]

Only problem is there are none here yet. I hope they don't blow through.

 

[dean nelson]

Really? They nest here and I'm only a 100 north of you so would have thought they would there as well. Only problem is they migrant far more east then they do south just like the swans. I know they are showing up on pool 9 over on the Mississippi so they are definitely on the move. Up here if you find good numbers of swans your likely to find the cans right with them.

 

[NodakBuckeye]

Interesting.... Have been told by the wife she wants a Canvasback for the wall.

 

[Kurtr]

Really? They nest here and I'm only a 100 north of you so would have thought they would there as well. Only problem is they migrant far more east then they do south just like the swans. I know they are showing up on pool 9 over on the Mississippi so they are definitely on the move. Up here if you find good numbers of swans your likely to find the cans right with them.

Ya not many swans here most I have ever seen has been last week 12 in one spot. If I go back to Watertown there are alot more.cans over there.

 

[KDM]

The mallards are starting to bunch up where I hunt. I saw the first "real" tornado a couple days ago. I would guess 2k-3k birds joined the cycle over the 20 minutes I watched it. Tough to get that many birds to decoy in. Sometimes I wonder how them goofy ducks even feed the way the circle down and then up and then down and then up at infinitum it seems.

 

[dean nelson]

Yeah I've also seen the first good mallard feeds since opening weekend. Also found a couple massive crane flocks that number well into the thousands this morning. Snow goose numbers seem to be holding steady for now but if the snow storm happens the way they forecast it to we will see a HUGE push by Thursday. Always love it when Canada gets hammered and we are just south of the snow line. Fun to watch an area go from a few thousand birds to a few hundred thousand birds in the matter of a couple hours.

 

[jdinny]

went up and hunted the uncles farm and 5 of us were fortunate to hit a limit of canadas, specks and ducks as well as a few bonus snows.still very few snow geese to speak. cant say much changed from the previous wknd other than maybe more ducks. as I figured the overnight lows just aren't there to move birds in mass yet. which like dean said could be this week.