Is the migration debate over?

[ZEEK1223]

Seems pretty obvious to me that the push is in full swing. I have seen more mallards and geese standing on ice than I have seen all year on water. This would be a good year to take a trip of a life time down south. These mallards are just cruising right through our state. I guess we really are fly over country.

[Gordie]

Don't you know Minnesota is no fly zone for canaidian ducks and lets not have a debate about the migration again

[BrdHunter01]

Lets..... From Fargo to Central MN today on 94 look out the window... DUCKS, DUCKS, AND MORE DUCKS! Everywhere! Also more geese around than I've seen all year! Tons and Tons of geese! HUGE flocks all over the place! Here they come! Better get out while the gettins good. Wait a sec.... The seasons over Sorry I got a little to excited

ps: please don't tell me I'm seeing things.... Thanks

[zackthehunter]

my uncle did alot of hunting a long time ago and he says the hunting is always better in dec and jan. big candian red legs some as big as 5 pounds

[carpshooterdeluxe]

i was out in west central minnesota all day yesterday pheasant hunting, and there definetely was another monster push of geese. didnt see any mallards though. hopefully some of these geese decided to stop at points other than LQP so they are at least huntable for late season.

[Scott M]

I was checking to see if there was any ice creeping out on a bigger lake in the area and I scared up 6 mallards that were sleeping next to shore. Coulda put down 3 greenheads if the season were open. Also saw some rafts of birds resting in the open water.

[Musky Buck]

brdhunter I can't live any more central in MN and hundreds of us deer hunters never saw a duck during rifle or muzzleloader season so I'm not clear as to your central MN location. You are seeing things, just kidding, west of 94 is western Minnesota, yes the fergus to alex to cloud run you will see some ducks.

[kobear]

I drove from Alex to Fergus on 94 and looped around the lakes Battle, Clitheral, Chippewa, Mina, Carlos, Ottertail, Reno, etc. Lots of Geese, has been for weeks, but no ducks. So I can say actually no from Fergus to Alex you won't see any ducks. Ton's of geese in Fergus though, Alex is actually pretty low compared to normal.

[chub]

They were probably just the scouts......

The real Mallard migration probably isn't going to happen for two or three weeks yet....

[CatchPhotoFilet]

frozen water means good bye birds. duck hunting is poor to fair at best it seems anymore. westward is definately the direction of travel for ducks and white geese

[Gordie]

fozen lake means birds on the river and yea it'll happen in 2-3 weeks got ya

[Bryce]

Spent Thursday-Monday cruising for rooties between the Aberdeen and Huron areas as just about everything locked up tight. Maybe 3 flocks of mallets and about half the worlds supply of light geese. Them canuck mallets must be tough to not even be sending the scouts down yet. Maybe something to do with the split hockey season due to the olympics?

[Gordie]

Them canuck mallets must be tough to not even be sending the scouts down yet. Maybe something to do with the split hockey season due to the olympics?

Thats funny right there

[chub]

Spent Thursday-Monday cruising for rooties between the Aberdeen and Huron areas as just about everything locked up tight. Maybe 3 flocks of mallets and about half the worlds supply of light geese. Them canuck mallets must be tough to not even be sending the scouts down yet. Maybe something to do with the split hockey season due to the olympics?

Was in the Freeman SD area Friday through Sunday and saw one wad of maybe a thousand Mallets hanging in the James River. Otherwise it was Snows, Blues and more Snows. The Mallards hadn't made it that far south yet........LMAO!

Guess I'll still have to be patient and wait this "main migration" out, and be ready with my camera, as our hunting season ends waaaaaaayyyyyy too early here in MN.......LOL

[castmaster]

Chub,

Out of curiosity what part of the state do you live in? Here in Hastings on the Mississippi River I saw more mallards the past week than I saw in the whole 60 day season combined. And FAR more geese the past week than all fall as well.

[chub]

Castmaster, I'm about two hours due west of the cities. Much of my hunting is about an hour and half to two hours west of here.

Being in Hastings and on the big muddy, it's only logical that you would see more birds this time of year, as they're froze out of most places and the river is one of the places the remainders will stack up. Happens like clock work every year.

It's got nothing to do with a "push" of birds, or the Mallard migration. The birds in the "safe zone" around the cities, are now frozen out of most of their favorite haunts, and are forced to open water. The river.

Would there be some fantastic opportunities for a late season hunt around there? Absolutely! Just not so much for the rest of the state. Other than a few(and they are few), isolated pockets of birds that will hang out as long as there's food and open water. Just as I'm sure there are some pockets of birds that will hang in CA until the bitter end. It's not indicative of "mass migration" yet to come.

This year the birds trickled through like they normally do out west, but for some reason, they just never stuck around. The numbers really never built up like they do some years.

As far as the "main Mallard migration", and it never comes until they're out of all food and water options in CA, it's a myth. Sure there will always be some left to come, probably yet into January, but the main wad will not waste weather pattern opportunites to get where they need to be, and that usually seems to start around mid Oct. The times we will be covered up in birds, are usually with the major earlier systems that shock everything from northern CA on down through us. We never had such a beast until last week. In my opinion from what I saw in the field, by that time, most of the birds we MAY have gotten, were already past us, or weren't coming through here at all.

Another funny thing about ducks is, one of us hunters can see 5,000 birds in an area and think that the whole northern flight is upon us, when in reality, it may be just one slough or flock that decided to pick up and stop for a moment over your head. In the big scheme of things, it's nothing really.

Been fun banter. Some truth from all sides and a whole lot of mystery involved in migration I reckon.

I'm just glad it's over. Never had so many days when "I just knew it was gonna happen today", only to sit and wonder WTH, and scratch my head......LOL Another week of it would have put me in the ground.....

[carpshooterdeluxe]

This year the birds trickled through like they normally do out west, but for some reason, they just never stuck around. The numbers really never built up like they do some years.

mallard numbers were thick the last two weeks of duck season, they just werent sitting on traditional roost areas. the flooded grain fields and crp really spread em out, but they were definetely in western minnesota.

[chub]

Maybe somewhere. They weren't in any of the areas I hunted. Seen a few, but no large numbers that I or anyone else that I know, saw. Unless they never flew in the daylight. Have one slough in the back yard that's roosted a pile of birds the last two years. They're gone before daylight, and come back in about dark. I haven't been able to figure where they loaf during the day. It's like they just disappear.......LOL

[BrdHunter01]

As far as the "main Mallard migration", and it never comes until they're out of all food and water options in CA, it's a myth.

"myth" Do you have any proof to back this statement to be a myth? Why did birds ever start migrating thousands if not millions of years ago? I know you guys say its a "calander" migration.... I don't believe in that. I do beleive the birds know what time of year it is and know their journey is soon. But what ultimately starts them on their journey? Is it the date on the calander or the wind/weather patterns? And as for birds concentraiting around the Mississippi river area that may be true but ducks will find open water somewhere whether it be a river or spring but their are many of both located throughout the midwest. I have also witnessed more ducks and geese around the last couple weks than I did all year. So far since the season has closed I have traveled from Fargo ND all the way to the twin cities (not in the same trip) seeing ducks and geese throughout point A, Point B, and EVERYWHERE inbetween! There have been more ducks and geese around since the season has closed (in MN anyway) than have been all year. Thats not hard to see, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that... With the amount of big water and rivers we have here in MN its no wonder why their are more birds around after "everythings locked up" than the rest of the year... We may not provide the best habitat for breeding ducks like the dakotas but we do provide the food and water they are looking for when it comes to cold weather/late season birds. And frankly these late season birds are pretty much the only ones that migrate through MN anymore. Sure divers and early migraters come through MN every year (and don't get me wrong there are some great hunts to be had if you hit it right), but as for the mallards, the majority of them show up, in MN, when supposedly "every is locked up". If you read the "late season ND report" they are still slottering the mallards up their but i don't understand how... when EVERYTHING is locked up I would give up the entire season to hunt from the beg/middle of Nov through the beg/middle of jan. any year! Thats JMO and what I have seen in my 15+ years as a die hard MN duck hunter.

[kobear]

I know there are almost no ducks in OT County now, just our consistent 1-2000 we hold in Fergus, even most of the swans have left due to the extensive ice, fish houses are on Otter Tail Lake now. We are holding our normal 10K of honkers though, have been since mid November nice to have that power plant in town.

You must have seen thousands or at least many flocks of hundreds to feel we have more ducks now than during season. I would guess if every hunter went out today 95% would see Zero ducks compared to opener when 95% bagged some ducks. I'm not a rocket scientist but that seems to indicate we had more ducks around for opener than now. And we actually raised those ducks here.

Remember those 490,000 ducks that were on the Mississippi NWR in early November? Do you think we still have millions of ducks around? Geese I would say maybe more now than during season, maybe.

Migration, I meant the Grand Passage when hundreds of flocks go over, not when the last couple hundred mallards show up somewhere.

[CANOPY SAM]

It might be appropriate for the two of you to agree to disagree. I don't see much of a debate here so much as a lot of sarcasm and grandstanding.

You're both correct in many ways.

One thing you should both keep in mind though is that weather patterns you're experiencing in southern or southwestern Minnesota are likely not the same as we're experiencing in Northern or northwestern Minnesota.

A few weeks ago many folks on this site were very excited about strong north winds coming over the weekend - perhaps pushing some birds further south. Now I'm not sure what was happening with the wind down your way, but we never had any strong north winds in the northern tier of the state during that period of time. And southern Canada probably had different weather as well.

I still haven't seen much of anything, including geese, come thru our region for the last few weeks, so I'm "guessing" that the birds you're seeing in the western central part of the state, on down thru the Twin Cities area, more than likely moved east out of the central Dakotas to migrate thru the Minnesota and Mississippi river valleys.

I know for fact that much of the migration occurs on cold clear nights while all is calm on the western front. I've seen this many, many times up here. So perhaps much of the northern migration occured while we were snug in bed dreaming of great shooting, and the birds just blew on thru. This happens more often than you think. Particularly when all, or most of the water is locked up in our area - and the Dakotas.

There are some great areas of western MN that see lots of migrating ducks. I've had great hunts around the Fertile, Beltrami area and east, west and south of this area. I think lots of birds move east, southeast across ND from Devils Lake (where there are many existing wetlands) toward the Whapeton (sp?), Breckenridge area to follow the MN river valley south to the Mississippi.

All I know for certain is we don't see nearly the same numbers of mallards moving thru the northwestern region of our state as we used to 20 years ago, and ND has truly awesome duck hunting all season long.

There is, and there are late northern flights moving out of Canada.

Another thread discussed distinguishing Canadian ducks from others. The late flight is made up of ducks that look just like the birds stacked in the picture at the beginning of that thread.

They'e blocky, short, thick-necked, heavy birds. They look like footballs with wings, and they're often much harder to knock down than many of the local birds. With the northern curly-tails it's a stretch to carry two by the neck in one hand. I think the northern flight is a bigger, hardier, blockier bird because of the tougher climate conditions far north of here. Just like Northern Canadian white-tailed deer. It's not uncommon at all to see 300+ lb. deer in Northern Alberta and Sasketchewan.

The southern, or early flight is primarily made up of thinner, longer birds, with more stretched out features. One can generally carry several in one hand.

I miss the big duck numbers up here. I've observed, as well as many of my hunting friends, that we seem to be no longer in the primary flight path of the larger duck migration.

A REALLY powerful, cold northern Canadian storm blowing south may have changed our shooting success if it had come about three weeks ago, but that just hasn't happened - in many years.

I think I'll be hunting family land in Central North Dakota again next year. Haven't been out in a few years, and I'm always confident in the waterfowl hunting out there, and the only scouting I need to do is look out the window of the house and pick which slough or field we'll be setting out blocks in today!

If this discussion continues, please keep it a logical, friendly debate, and lose the sarcasm and cheap jabs.

[chub]

If this discussion continues, please keep it a logical, friendly debate, and lose the sarcasm and cheap jabs.

If anyone gets their panties in a bunch over a little sarcasm and jabbing on the WWW, .....guess I don't know what to say?

The guy that's wrong (oops, there I go again), and I are no more going to solve or figure the migration, than shoot a million dollar reward band. I assume he's smiling as he types his replies much like myself. ....and if he's not, his loss I guess.

Like everything, the truth is somewhere in the middle.