Continued Migration Today

[eyepatrol]

My neighbor and I went out this morning cutting through the ice that covered about 98% of the lake. Fortunately, the spot we hunt had probably an acre of open water which was sweet!

Decent numbers of mallards heading south again today. If I were to guess, I suppose we saw between 40 - 50 flocks of 10 - 40 mallards all up high in a vee headed south. Although most didn't come down on the lake to play, we did manage a few flocks to come in. And boy did they ever come in. Once they locked on the dekes, that was it....no circling, no hesitation....straight in like a bullet to land. And they were very talkative today too. We ended up with our limit of mallards....7 drakes and 1 hen that was in a flock before the sun came up. Mallards we got today were more fatty.

Didn't see much geese...just a few small flocks of 8 - 10 and that was it. A few small flocks of swans heading south also. Only a flock or two of divers.

Let's see....stuffed mallard breast Tuesday night....mallards with bbq sauce in the crockpot last night....I think tonight it's mallard breast parmesan! Tomorrow night I gotta eat something different though.

[pocketknife]

just to add on to migration report I was out this moring in western mn 17 cool degrees light snow a good wind and ducks coming from allover even when I was out picking up shot ducks more coming into the dekes. went to chase a cripple and more ducks coming in. gotta go back

[eyepatrol]

Ah yes! I forgot to mention. We experienced the same thing. I was out knocking ice off the dekes when my neighbor started calling and had a flock of 15 come in. He got one.

Busted many times today while either knocking ice off dekes, picking up ducks, etc. Best part of the day, we had a flock of about 40 mallards lock and come right in, all cupped up....what a sight that was!

[mpester]

I saw and shot at more ducks today than I did in the last four times out combined. I was hunting in the metro area. Lots of huge flocks of ring necks. I ended the day with three ring necks and a late green wing teal. This was my most enjoyable hunt of the year. I had two flocks of 75 - 100 ring necks each come in to the decoys. I wish the birds had been mallards but I am not too picky. I hope they are still as cooperative on Sunday when I take some friends out.

[Fish&Fowl]

Glad to hear there's birds moving around. Hoping to get out the Mon. of the 2nd week of deer season to hunt Rainy River, as I'm thinking that might be the only accessible open water left around the Falls. If not I'll be trying to get out on the lake, gotta skip a couple classes and get one last hoo-rah in. It's a catch 22 that the best time of the season also means the end of the season up here, so take advantage of every day. Good luck!

[Dean Schellinger]

Yesterday was much better that today for us. We had a mixed bag of limits yesterday for 2 guys, but today only 3 ducks and a goose. As far as the migration is concerned, we saw a flock of common mergansers numbering around 40 or so, and a flock of about 50 hooded mergansers. Those are some late late arrivals so the migration might be further along that I hoped. I'd imagine this warm spell we hold some birds in the area though if open water is still around.

[Riverratpete]

Got out this morning for awhile in the NE Metro...broke ice for quite a ways to get out onto the lake then to access my blind area..thankfully only about 1/2 inch. Northern Mallards and big Bluebills pretty much traded back and forth across the middle of the lake, only got a crack at a loner Greenhead looking for some friends..still can't believe we misses..hope with the warmer weather it should keep the birds around here for a little while longer.

[MLaker2]

Field hunted western Stevens county this mornig, great hunt. Lots of mallard flocks, decoyed well. Also lots of divers on bigger water that opened up this afternoon, in fact more divers than I have seen for several years.

[Guest]

Hunting sucked for me today. We kicked a good number of birds off the lake.. both ducks and geese, then one flock buzzed the decoys and I got excited and shot too early.. oh well.

I pheasant hunted the morning then ducks this afternoon. When we were duck hunting we seen a tornado of ducks.. flock after flock all circling around going up and down.. ducks of all shapes and sizes. There was no lake in that direction, and it was very close to where we were pheasant hunting... but we didnt see them while ditch parrot hunting.

It seemed that every migrating bird in the area was making use of one field..its aweful hard to decoy ducks 2 miles away from where 1000 birds are continually landing?

One of those days, at least it was warm!