Lake Benton Trip Summary

[Sartell Angler]

Well, 4 of us took a long drive on Saturday to see if we couldn't get a shot at a snow goose. We left St. Cloud at 5am, and made it out past Granite Falls by about 8 or so. The wildlife we saw on the way out was incredible. 10 Pheasants, 4 turkeys (3 big toms), 4 deer, a bunch of rabbits, a red fox, and a raccoon. Lake Benton was covered in every kind of duck or goose imaginable. We also found another lake east of Tyler that was smaller...it had thousands of ducks and geese on it but we only saw one small group of snows that were un-approachable. All day there were flocks of specks migrating, and occasionally there was one or two snows mixed in. Unfortunatly, they had no reason to stop and therefore were never lower than about 200 yards up. Nonetheless, we had an awesome time just sitting on the side of this lake with binoculars watching ducks on the water, in the air, and on the ice. Pintails, cans, redheads, spoonies, specks...you name it we saw it on this lake. Wish a sight like this was the norm in the fall...

SA/wdw

[Eric Wettschreck]

S.A. I'm with ya. It's really cool watching these different species on their migration back up nort. Around these parts we just don't get to see these birds in the summer or fall. It's really cool.

Glad ya had a good time.

[lawdog]

NO Kidding! Its a great time to be watching things come back to life around here! Why do all these birds pour through here in the spring and none come back in the fall??? We never see NEAR the variety in the fall as there is in the spring... Oh well, at least we get to see them now.

[Eric Wettschreck]

I've thought that myself. I wonder if it's because in the spring there are more potholes, flooded areas, lakes are higher, etc. We know after a summer the ponds and marshes dry up. No wetlands=no ducks.

Like ya said, at least we get to see them in the spring.

[Fowlguy]

When the lake land owners at lake benton kill all the weeds this summer there may not be ducks stoping next year.

[Dean Schellinger]

Is that the plan?

How sickening is that. I was on the trip with SA and we had a blast, I saw my first confirmed snow geese and a lot of other species of ducks and geese including drake canvasbacks, speckle bellies, drake pintails, and drake redheads, pretty sweet watching those birds cruise around by the thousands.