Where is the Duck Migration????

The prairies are LOADED right now. About 1 hour SW of Saskatoon the birds are piling in today by the thousands. My buddy guides out there and he says today is the heaviest duck migration day he has seen in his 5 years guiding there. Snow and cold temps to the Northwest in SK and AB are pushing them down.
 
Northeastern Ontario has been a bust. Crops were off early in the area. Early Goose hunting was unreal but the locals have since pushed on. Weather north of us not cooperating so far this year. Wishing I was 2 provinces west.
 
around our area, we wished they would push on, the waters look like pepper on the surfaces.
...geese numbers look like snow in our fields and deafening when the large floatillas fly over.
 
North East Ontario has been great for us... lots of locals early on... Northern flights are coming down now... mixed bags of mallards/blacks/woodies and divers have been the norm... seeing more goldeneye than usual... bluebills and ring bills appear to be in good shape... and of course the frickin' geese are everywhere. The teal stuck around longer than usual and woodies are still here in good numbers (but not for long)... all in all, a good year.
 
This is certainly the best year in my lifetime, more than 40 years of hunting central Saskatchewan. For example, I took some friends from BC out for two days last week. On Thursday we had an amazing morning, more than 100 flocks came in to the decoys. We shot a couple dozen green heads, 20 or so snow geese, ( stopping well short of our limits of 32 ducks and 80 geese) then just sat back and watched them fly. What fun! And lots of good eating too.
 
We have had an excellent year for ducks and geese this season. The ducks have been unbelievable but they have moved farther south. A few flocks are still around but nothing like Thanksgiving weekend...
 
It was a slow start here, the local birds were kind of trickling in, and moved off quickly. This last week though! WOW! The birds started coming down from the north and there are millions of them! Today, I saw one field that had more birds in it than I'd ever seen in my life.
 
hoytcanon said:
North East Ontario has been great for us... lots of locals early on... Northern flights are coming down now... mixed bags of mallards/blacks/woodies and divers have been the norm... seeing more goldeneye than usual... bluebills and ring bills appear to be in good shape... and of course the frickin' geese are everywhere. The teal stuck around longer than usual and woodies are still here in good numbers (but not for long)... all in all, a good year.
Click to expand...

Seen a lot of Mallards in and around Sudbury. North Channel has the usual goldeneyes. Not seeing anything in the harvested grain on Manitoulin or North Shore. It must be the area we are in. The only other explanation is the push has not made it this far yet? Beginning to think my dog won't have enough hours this season for unemployment.
 
Last week, Thursday southern Manitoba was loaded with ducks. Limited out in 2 hours...and I was picky. Went out on Saturday and didn't even see a duck on the same marsh. Birds I shot were full of soy beans.
 
They where up here Friday by the thousands. Went out Sunday for moose and didn't see any daffys so figure they packed up and headed south. We started getting the usual late oct weather finally on Sat.
 
North gunner said:
Seen a lot of Mallards in and around Sudbury. North Channel has the usual goldeneyes. Not seeing anything in the harvested grain on Manitoulin or North Shore. It must be the area we are in. The only other explanation is the push has not made it this far yet? Beginning to think my dog won't have enough hours this season for unemployment.
Click to expand...

We are hunting the same areas and doing very well... big batch of green heads this morning.
 
Heck, this year is turnign out to be like last year where the ducks didn't come in until mid to late November. Geese are way down and so are ducks so far. We still have teal around, taken three so far this year. My first teal ever, had little afterburner birds to hit that's for sure. We have some mallards and blacks, not many.

One other thing that is really odd is their flights. They are not staging and flying to feed and bed down as they normally would. We almsot never hear or see goose flocks overhead during the day. All really late at night or 2-3 am. Early goose wasn't too bad this year. Seems everything has almost dried up now.

Hopefully if Sudbury is starting to see the push then it will only be a week or so before we do. As long as they don't stop and Winter along the way.
 
I had heard from someone that they are just piling up north and wont really show up to southern ontario till the next full moon, so in a bit i cant wait for some good ducks, tons of geese around here, lots to shoot at in southern ontario, i was just out sunday, some lake ducks are around, but no migiratory
 
Brutal hunting for us so far and we have been hunting hard just wknds tho. Last year at this time was 10x better. I'm frustrated and getting my bow out to log some hours in the tree stand. I am sure now that ill be bow hunting they will pile in like never before.
 
chadmichener said:
Are you a retard?
why would you put a spot on the map like that? Where is your favourite hunting or fishing spot?
I will start sending people there.....
Your a moron and your outfitter buddy isn't very liked in the area either.

Let the doggie pile begin.....
Click to expand...
Your post tells us volumes about your personality. A smarter person would have edited thier post by now.
To the original OP, I can confirm what Spank has said. On the drive to Calgary from Cold Lake, I've never seen so many mallards before, between Bonnyville & Smoky Lake on this Sunday passed.
 
hoytcanon said:
We are hunting the same areas and doing very well... big batch of green heads this morning.
Click to expand...

In years past Manitoulin would be covered in Sandhills in addition to ample mallards and geese by now. Scouted late afternoon in the usual areas and seen maybe 50 geese and no more than 20 Sandhills. There were two big rafts of mergies on the water. No flight ducks right through until dark. Going to check big water this weekend if the winds cooperate.
 
Last year was a banner yr for ducks, and hatch was good again supposed to be. And it is, seen and holding more ducks this early on then I can remember. swans here alittle early too.

I think its gonna be a cold winter.
 
Here on the east coast, I think we're seeing a few more than normal, but the big migration certainly hasn't started yet. Having said that, there were far more birds around at the start of this season than there were the last three years, I would say. The bays are already full of sea ducks, and the amount of black ducks around at the start of the season was unreal. Goose populations seem to have increased a lot this year as well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom