Spring Snows

[Trip McNeely]

Actually they were well west of normal. Red is the normal path blue is lake oahe and the blob between them normally would be along the james. The whole roscoe and ipswich area is turning into major staging points now days.

. tell that to the one-million plus birds that were at tewaukon and in the cayuga area last weekend. that refuge hasnt staged that many birds in quite a few years. to try to label anything snow goose normal isnt right. these birds thrive off adapting not normal. maybe the better term is trending. the last few years have been dry. the red-james is gettingg drained more every year. add it all up and u have a trend starting. now say we get 60 inches of snow and slow melting the next few years and that trend will shift back to where the water is.

 

[jdinny]

I gotta side with trip on this dean its quite obvious you didn't 1 million staging at tewqoun.:;:cheers

- - - Updated - - -



- - - Updated - - -

and by west I mean well west into ND new town, tioga, ray etc etc they didn't follow the river this year in numbers I have seen in the past. must be jogging NE from Kurt R area

- - - Updated - - -

can I change my answer on birds not pushing back...haha think some may in fact work back south

 

[dean nelson]

Not saying birds didn't use the main flyway....in reality I would guess it was something along the line of a 60/40 split between main and west flyway vs the 90/10 split it used to be. It isn't a all or nothing type of deal just percentages of what was the norm. tewaukon had a nice build up of birds no doubt but depending on what population model you look at that flock only accounted for around 20% on the high and as little as 5% on the low side of the whole Midcontinent population. As for ray and Newtown by the time they get there the flyway has busted up almost completely from what it was south of 94. This is an extremely rough layout of the spring migration as it was in the the early 2000's. When I talk the western group I'm specifically talking about the area around Chamberlain South Dakota up through Goodrich North Dakota. That group of birds has been on a steady rise the last half dozen years and this year was no different. Like trip said they is no such thing as normal with snows so who knows what they will do next. On the map red is the main flyway and orange being secondary flyaways. The blue is major staging areas and the green is the approximate Edge where you'll find the Snows in spring.



- - - Updated - - -

Little closer look at nd. Like said very rough outline of what it used to be.

 

[johnr]

if they fly a bit further west, do they taste any better?

 

[dean nelson]

I can tell you if they come out of Texas they taste worse! Peanuts taste good but peanut flavored snow goose taste like crap!:;:thumbsup

 

[jdinny]

what is the name of that play 246 A right turbo turbo? LOL I cant argue anything there dean. I would agree with all of that. I guess im going off my observations this spring thus far and cant say ive been successful finding that missorui river flight. ive even been in touch with kurtR to see his side of things but I personally havent seen birds stack west this year like I have in previous years.

 

[Kurtr]

I will say we had more sit on the river right in town this year than i have seen since i lived here since 02 but not near what they had between roscoe and bowdle. This is also the earliest the water has been open on oahe since i have lived here. The people in town were perplexed with maybe 50-60 thousand geese sitting on the river. Growing up in watertown it was just another flock of snow geese to me. It was 12 years ago in the fall i remember that exactly because it was the first year i had my dog i swear the snows moved west that year we shot a shit ton and the guys from around here said they never have go them like that.

 

[dean nelson]

Oh I'm not speaking the river so much as 83 and say the first 20 to 30 miles to the east. There is a decent flight now days that swings up along 1804 but they keep trucking north when the river takes the big west bend at the gun range. Getting to be a very real flyway that turns west when it hits long lake following long lake creek north west till they hit Mackenzie slough then back north again. It's these side flyways that gained considerable numbers over the last few years and have become huntable. Back in 01 and what not there just wasn't enough birds out west most of the time to make it even worth bothering with were now there are huge flights the likes of which a guy used to have to go to oaks to see. S this new buildup is probably caused by two different factors 1 the just natural West progression of the migration of the last 20 years and 2. the overall population growth of the whole flock. Either way it great for us since it splits up the hunters and allows us bismarck guys better options when hunting from home instead of hanging out at the Angry Beaver!

 

[jdinny]

I think you said it about right there dean especially number 2.

I think what a lot of people consider west is that river/lake flight you speak of. it musta been 2012 or 2013 they stacked up and I mean absolutely stacked up on van hook around newtown. huge flocks but I believe they got caught in weather worked back south and the big lake was open so they staged up there.

from my travels ive seen some large huntable flocks off the river in that washburn, Stanton area but nothing this year just flew by night I assume.

- - - Updated - - -

you have any left to spit up to us kurt or they all passed you?

 

[tikkalover]

I drove from Minot, to Lignite, to Souris, and back to Minot on Tuesday. Flocks of snows scattered all over the place. Went to Glenburn yesterday, and west of there was a decent sized flock, they told me, they have been there for 4 or 5 days.

 

[Migrator Man]

Any recent reports on the big push ? I'm wondering if it is worth chasing them after work this week. Thanks

 

[Kurtr]

I think you said it about right there dean especially number 2.

I think what a lot of people consider west is that river/lake flight you speak of. it musta been 2012 or 2013 they stacked up and I mean absolutely stacked up on van hook around newtown. huge flocks but I believe they got caught in weather worked back south and the big lake was open so they staged up there.

from my travels ive seen some large huntable flocks off the river in that washburn, Stanton area but nothing this year just flew by night I assume.

- - - Updated - - -

you have any left to spit up to us kurt or they all passed you?

Pretty well all gone from down here.

 

[SeisMec]

I've been seeing a couple 1000 white geese around Underwood for the last 2 weeks. Usually in the sloughs and fields north of Underwood all the way up to Audubon.

 

[FishSticks]

I shot a few Saturday near Alice jumping them off the ponds. Got the waterfowl itch somewhat scratched for time being.

 

[dean nelson]

Must have been a fair few at Mackenzie this morning.

http://www.weather.gov/crh/nowcast?sid=bis&embed=#.Vu_9GqhOnxA

 

[snowkiller]

There are very large numbers north of hwy 2

 

[Enslow]

Geces have wings and can fly where they want.

- - - Updated - - -

They can fly east, they can fly west, and they can go up and down and around...

 

[tikkalover]

Drove from Minot to Grandforks yesterday, tons of birds from Granville to 20 miles east of Rugby. Once you get east of Rugby they thin out quit a bit.

 

[dean nelson]

Saw a few big waves getting up south west of me when I was up by Davis wpa this afternoon. Not totally sure where they were coming from but it was somewhere in the O'Brian lake area. I was a little surprised there were still those kind of numbers around.

 

[snowkiller]

Anybody seeing any?Heard there was a reverse migration the last 2 days.