# Migration



## sdgoosehunter16 (Sep 22, 2009)

hey guys,
im from the brookings, sd area and anybody near like within 200 miles been seeing any huge flocks of ducks and geese it seems to me that the geese and ducks have left the area(or their being their usual inconsistent selves) well anyways just wondering if there have been any big flocks of migrators! any input would be great just hoping for a good shoot here soon its been awhile since we've pounded some! :beer: :sniper:


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## shiawassee_kid (Oct 28, 2005)

i'm in south central nd and theres not much of anything flying south here. locals mallards have bugged out.


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## SDOutdoorsman (Mar 9, 2009)

I'm about an hour west of you and I have also been having a hard time finding large numbers of birds. I've been seeing lots of small groups of ducks spread out everywhere, but no huge flocks. Its also been awhile since I have seen many geese.


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## Duckmaster15 (Nov 13, 2007)

i have been doing alot of scouting in that area and i noticed that big water was holding the majority of the birds i did in fact see one flock of snows only about 200 birds. But for ducks just mainly divers for what i am seein.


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## teamshakeandbake (Oct 14, 2008)

in the aberdeen area not seeing very much either last friday was the last time i saw any type of migration and since then nothing......


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## Prairie Dweller (Jul 4, 2009)

I'm in central ND and haven't seen ANYTHING the past few days. Very empty region right now.

PD


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## shiawassee_kid (Oct 28, 2005)

seen some high flyers today heading south (finally) they had no interest in anything but heading toward SD.  Shot a limit of mallets in field this morning so things are looking up. Also had a 3 swans fly over while i was in my layout...2 left.  anyone have a good swan recipe?


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## headshot (Oct 26, 2006)

They are still north of the border. We have just gotten into the ducks in the last week-10 days.


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## jccjr (Oct 14, 2009)

Is anyone in the center part of ND that can report on whether you are seeing any new ducks migrating in? I am planning on being up there next week and would appreciate any input on what you guys are seeing. thanks much for all of the great posts on this site.


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## Rick Davis (Oct 7, 2002)

Looks like the big push has started. I went out last evening and seen a lot of geese moving in and some BIG flocks of mallards. Hopefully they will stick around for a few days. All the sloughs are froze over and some of the bigger lakes are open and loaded with mallards. :sniper:


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## jpallen14 (Nov 28, 2005)

In the Turtle Mt.? Perfect I'm headed up that way now!


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## Rick Davis (Oct 7, 2002)

10-4, pm me if you want locations :beer:


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## jjw3182 (Oct 6, 2008)

I've heard most of NE SODAK is froze. Any body know anything up that way?


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## jpallen14 (Nov 28, 2005)

Mostly froze. some ducks


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## TheBear (Jan 19, 2006)

Hey anything flying in the far south central area? Heard they got 3+ inches of snow last night. Would like to leave in the morning but if there are no birds it doesn't make it worth it.


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## goosehunternd (Mar 10, 2006)

No birds after the snow storm came threw, everything is froze hard. Bring the ice augers and vexilars if ur headed to nd, snowmobile wouldn't hurt either.


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## steveandzoom (Sep 8, 2004)

Hard water? No ducks? Damn, I am cancelling my trip until 2010. My streak comes to an end after 15 years.


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## troubleinthestubble (Oct 8, 2009)

goosehunternd said:


> No birds after the snow storm came threw, everything is froze hard. Bring the ice augers and vexilars if ur headed to nd, snowmobile wouldn't hurt either.


Well I am in northern ND and i have lots of birds around and lots of open water. So I dont know where your comin from.


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## thohleit (Aug 25, 2008)

The weather looks good, i think it will take alot to more to push the ducks out.


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## Retrieving Mallards (Feb 3, 2009)

Just got home from central nodak. One of the best trips ive had in 5 years up there. Birds are there. We hunt the fields. If you r hunting potholes good luck because they are frozen. But we had no problem killing our greenheads and geese. Tons of snows around. Good luck.


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## shiawassee_kid (Oct 28, 2005)

TheBear said:


> Hey anything flying in the far south central area? Heard they got 3+ inches of snow last night. Would like to leave in the morning but if there are no birds it doesn't make it worth it.












was more like 6" and melted down to 3" by evening. starting to see mallards flocking up on big water. most of the sloughs around here are open. only thing froze is the tiny stuff. only seen a few flights up high today. i rolled big snowmen to cover my blind...wish i had a sheet or some stubble skins


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## Rick Acker (Sep 26, 2002)

Was out Wednesday morning and I would say 90% of the potholes were frozen...Even some of the smaller lakes had ice. Birds were hungry and we had a pretty good field shoot.


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## Rick Acker (Sep 26, 2002)




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## farmercole (Sep 28, 2009)

in central nd there are birds cominng in, nothing in large numbers. Last weekend was cold, a lot froze up and some of the birds left or headed for the big water, has been warming up and all the water should be upen by monday. going out tomarrow sure to get limit, a few snows are around but more ducks than anything


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## ValleyCityHunter2008 (Jan 13, 2008)

Was out this weekend, only thing i saw migrating were a few ducks and no geese migrating. In all aspects I didn't see much heading south.


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## northdakotakid (May 12, 2004)

We had a lot of birds moving this morning... had 3-4k or so crane, 1k or so snows and thousands of ducks moving.

The ducks were in huge flocks in the early morning but did not feed in the fields... just moved from large water to smaller transitions. But there were flocks all day of 15-50 birds heading south about 70 yards up once the wind picked up about 9 AM.

There are a lot of birds... put in some window time.

Central NoDak... very little hunting pressure.


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## kmpots (Nov 22, 2005)

> Central NoDak... very little hunting pressure.


You are kidding... right!

If not, it is just a matter of time...

Why don't we give out a little more info, like are you "Center" north south or more east west?

I know a couple thousand lurkers just trying to figure out where to hunt this next week.

I give it a day or two.

By the way, I'm just kidding you.


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## kingcanada (Sep 19, 2009)

oh i am sure that they are already setting deeks in your honeyhole! :lol: things froze up here in Wyoming too, then thursday warm winds thawed everything out and ducks filled the shallow waters again. i heard that warm weather is headed your way too. those ducks coming out of canada will surely fill up that water. let the battle rage on! :sniper:


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## sleeri (Oct 9, 2006)

Just got back from ND yesterday. Did very well duck hunting, but didn't see as many mallards and geese as I was expecting. I was thinking all of the cold weather would push them down.

We didn't see any snows and only a few lessers. Mallards were around, but not in the numbers you see when their migration approaches the peak point. We did see a lot of Gadwall and quite a few divers.


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## Maverick (Mar 4, 2002)

> Central NoDak... very little hunting pressure.


We saw alot of pressure this weekend to the south of you! Team Illusion was even in town filming! There were some birds in the area earlier in the week, but with the frozen slews most moved out. We did manage a few on Sunday morning and most of the duck we shot were high flyer's that we were able to pull from the heavens. It is a very cool site when you pull mallards from the stratosphere. Great times for the 3 of us! Nothing beats hunting with the ones who taught you!


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