We saw a push of ducks yesterday afternoon (Friday) and evening into the Central MN area. The population of ringers and gadwall has increased dramatically since Friday morning. I came off the big water this morning with a mixed limit.
Wished I could have stayed out a little longer this a.m. We managed 4 mallards, three of them being drakes. Each duck came in solo and early was not as good as later in the a.m. Shot the first drake at 7, then not another until 7:30. Then another 45 minutes and birds seemed to be moving a little better. Great a.m., saw 4 to shoot at, shot all four and the dog retrieved all 4 after being on the shelf from last season. Now its off to cut more wood, bummer…
Mark
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We managed 4 mallards, three of them being drakes. Each duck came in solo and early was not as good as later in the a.m. Shot the first drake at 7, then not another until 7:30. Then another 45 minutes and birds seemed to be moving a little better.
Mark
Now I’m starting to get jacked up, a little 
I have laid off from reporting, because I had nothing to offer.
Second weekend I made an over zeolous decision and headed further north. Yeah, I knew that the birds were not migrating, but I felt the need to at least find some resident ringnecks/golden eyes and hope for puddlers and geese.
On Friday October 10th I hit Cass lake looking for a fix. Perfect temperature, drizzle and good company did not fail me, but the birds did 
My good friend from the area was sitting in the front of my rig as we sailed across Cass in the pitch black with my 50HP wide open. No, I was not following my trusty H2O Hunt, but rather my partner (a local tournament fisherman) was giving me faint hand signals! Talk about TRUST!
We have made this trip before, but with much better results 
I was pushing the season…
I spent the rest of the weekend cutting wood and walking for grouse between Hackensack and Longville 
This past weekend I stayed home hoping to fulfill some of my family responsibilities. November is still a ways off 
The family did not make our typical family tradition for the MEA, but stayed home in the Twin Cities.
In an effort to find a spot to take my 9YO boy for some exposure, I visited a friends large group of private ponds in the Stillwater/Grant area. This is typically a guaranteed October locations for mallards, woodies and geese.
I took the wife (BMBL) 3 little girls and my boy for a walk around the woods and water, right down to our prospective hunting spot. We never saw a single bird!
For those of you who know my M.O., this will be no surprise, but:
I have loaded myself with family obligations for the next 2 weekends, halloween is obvious.
I’m a hardcore November duck hunter.
Big water, big waves, below freezing temperatures, snow flurries and a strong NW wind, all on the biggest waters that Minnesota has to offer, now I’m in to it 
Please continue to drive my motivation with your reports, because November is my time!
From the reports that I have been getting:
West Central Minnesota is seeing far more geese and ring necks.
Twin Cities Metro has not changed much.
Northern Minnesota border hunters are starting to see more cans, bills, and redheads.
East Central and South Eastern Minnesota seems to be reporting way more divers . This continues to surprise me. for the past several years, when the East Central and South Eastern Minnesota hunters seem to see a large influx of divers before the rest of the state, the migration seems to go really, really fast 
.
I hope I’m wrong, but we will track it here 
Good luck
cheers
Quick report from the weekend.
Numbers in central MN are going up. We sat for a short mrning on Saturday with mixed results due to ME being lazy. We ended the day with a hand full of mallards one woody and 3 lesser Canadiens. (Boy was I suprised to see them.)
We left that morning with hopes of seeing a few local puddle ducks and some geese. Fortunatly/unfortunatly we found more ring bills than we did mallards. As you can see we didn’t shoot even one diver. (And I will never hear the end of it.) As we were leaving the house my partner asked me this question. “Aren’t you bringing a diver spread?” To wich I answered. “Nope there not here yet. We’ll set up in the corner for some mallards and geese.” When we saw the first flock of Ring bills he stated. “Nope….. Looks like all the divers are some where else.” 
Looks like I’ll be eating crow for a while.
Had a rough weekend…..I’d rather not talk about it 
North Dakota next weekend is gonna be a nice change of pace from this pathetic October!!! 
i had a pretty good weekend. sat me and my gf got our 12 birds, mallards and teal, sat, the wind turned on us after we got set up, and only managed 5, as the wind was blowing right into our face. went this morning, shot 18 ducks and 2 geese. lot of mallards around, just have to look for them…
Come on Jake, you just have to look for them….. 
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i had a pretty good weekend. went this morning, shot 18 ducks and 2 geese. lot of mallards around, just have to look for them…
Nice report Kris
I’m glad to hear that somebody is having some fun
Sounds like things may be starting to happen, ever so slowly
cheers
also had some pretty easy shots at some cans while out saturday too. too bad there isnt any of those any more. i think i seen more cans this year in north dakota than all other years combined…
Chriss
I reported the ringer numbers increased dramatically in Central MN. They came into our area in a massive flock on Friday afternoon around 11:00 am. That was a site to see… They dropped out of the clear blue sky. I haven’t been able to get back on the big water since Saturday.
In other news, there was some decent Canada goose movement and a little Mallard movement on Sunday evening and last night. Nothing real major, however. I suspect there will be more to see this weekend.
Was down chasing pheasants in Jackson county on the 18th and 19th. Very few ducks around but the canadians were pretty thick, we saw flocks moving around thru the weekend taking advantage of the corn left behind by all the JD combines
Came back to Brookings and went scouting the last few days. Had to put on a lot of miles to find birds but the first big groups of mallards and divers appeared last night. This weekend should produce some pretty good hunting again after the 2 week lull.
heres a pic of yesterday mornings hunt. found them using a little pocket on the river. we had our ducks and the geese a little after 8
Great photo Kris, your hunting partner is much better looking than mine 
I had to make a run up to St. Cloud today and noticed two things;
1. The picked fields are getting MUCH more active with honkers, even at high noon
2. The honkers are flocking up, not just in family groups anymore. Today was the first real sign that I have seen of this occurring.
This is a great time of year when driving on hwy 10 just SE of the St. Cloud prison, the honkers look like bumble bees 
Oh yeah, it’s also a great time of year when we all start diligently viewing and posting on the “2008 Duck & Goose Migration Report” during lunch 
I would say that things are heating up
Good luck
cheers
bird numbers in the SE metro are down right now, but there are killable numbers of birds, you just have to find them… with the weather we’ve had lately, i think once we get a couple days of NW winds, it is going to get awfully green around here.
There’s a lake I wathch as an indicator for the move. I noticed the first small rafts of divers on it this AM. (Maybe 30 to 50) They were a ways off and I didn’t have Bino’s. It shouldn;t be long now.
Drake, let me know when that bee hive starts moving east down 10.
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Drake, let me know when that bee hive starts moving east down 10.
cheers
They’re HEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE 
I did hear some positive migration, reports for western and central minnesota, last weekend.
As some of you might have seen in another post, I was out hunting on friday under invitation from a couple of clients/industry contacts, down in the Albert Lea – Austin area.
I only came home with a couple of ducks and my exact location is not important to this report, because scout throughout the southern area produced similar results.
Oh yeah, and the weather is changing TODAY
I experience some of that occurence that I hope to witness each year. Brand new birds arriving to an area in flocks of 100+. From 1.5 miles up in the air, they spot something in your area that looks enticing and they fold up to decend at mach speed. I did not shoot any of the new birds, but the experience was awsome
New arrivals in Southern MN included cans, ringers, redheads and bufflehead.
Still in the area were mallards, spoonbills, gadwalls and some ruddies.
Reports and photos should really pick-up this weekend
I will not make it out this weekend, so I’m looking forward to hearing from all of you
Good luck
cheers
There was definantly a good puch of new birds into the area today. That wind was unreal.
I don’t know if anyone has posted this link before, but here is an interesting link to the Miss. R. duck surveys:
I love to use this to try to plan my hunting down there. I don’t always get to use this info, but thought some would like to use.
I also heard last week from a friend hunting in Canada that he thought it might still be two weeks before the mallards would be moving in earnest. That was last weekend so hopefully you guys will start to see them here pretty soon out your way. I also heard that there was reasonable push with this weather in our area, though I have not gotten a chance to hear any stories from this weekend as I hunted geese down in the Madison area this weekend. We got our limit today, but needed a decent afternoon hunt to help out this mornings.
Mark
Nice post Mark, thanks for the link
While we are all interested in any tools that accurately help us track the waterfowl migration through the upper midwest, that is also the whole reason that this post was started back in 2005.
This post and the people that contribute have had a much more positive influence on my understanding and awareness of the annual migration, than any website that I have visited.
All of these tools together though, and we are one current and informed group
Good luck
cheers
Just a quick update from me. Spent friday morning on a slough next to Pelican. (I should have taken my own advice.) Ony one Gad on the water and very few birds even willing too look. Fortunatly/unfortunatly my youngest daughter was baptised this weekend so I was unable to hunt. I did however do a bit of scouting yesterday afternoon. The wind and cold over the weekend pushed a good number of Mallards into the area. Sloughs that weren’t holding last week are now showing signs of life. The big push isn’t here but there are positive signs. Once my truck gets out of the shop I’m going to do a bit of scouting this afternoon. I’ll drop an update when I return.
Jeepers! There was duck action galore on Sunday in west central MN if you were brave (dumb) enough to sit out in the wind, sleet, and snow. After bailing on our regular slough because of the wind my son and I sat around a small lake south of Hoffman and got some tough but excellent shooting. It was too dangerous to put out water decoys so we had to opt for pass shooting on the windward side to get the birds to fall on land. It paid off for some big Mallards and a couple geese. My son and his 20 gauge single shot showed me up on a flock of 4 geese. I unloaded with some 3 1/2 inch BBB without pulling a feather. He pulled up with a 3 inch deuce and folded a 10 pounder at 60 yards high in a 50mph gale. We really had to play the wind with our shots but had a blast doing it.
I’ll have a report for the Upsala area tomorrow after I get out and see what’s moved in while I was gone over the weekend.
I cleaned some fowl last night that had some serious layers of yellow fat on them! The true opener is close now.
Hit the water this AM. Found myself breaking Ice for the first time this seasson. It was a bitter sweet moment. I knew that the birds I had been scouting for the past 2 days were going to be gone. But I pushed ahead anyways. (It was first Ice you know.) Sat in the slough until 9:00 with little shooting to show for it. There were plenty of birds but nothing willing to play in my ICE when there’s still plenty of big water available. Looks like it’s time to start outfitting for my late season runs. The next few days will open the small water back up but it willl only take one good cold front to lock things down tight.
been seeing a ton of new birds in new places this week on my way to work on the river. had a blah hunt today getting one mallard and one honker, but found them piled for later in the week and should have an awesome weekend! seen one lonely pair of black ducks in with a big flock of mallards. i dont see them around here very often, and i have never shot one yet. i seen a bunch last winter while late season goose hunting of course, how often do you guys shoot them?
Quick update for you guys headed out to ND. I got word this AM that the Snows and Mallards have moved into the Medina, Peddibone, Woodworth Area. The boys from Bismark ran up on Tuesday after the front passed and say that it deposited a ton of birds. (They all decided to stay until Sunday. 
) As we speak most of the small water is froze up but thawing by the minute. My guess is that the birds will hang out till the next big front.
Good luck if your headed out that way.
Just got back from North Dakota….Overall duck numbers were down right retched. Scouted huge areas, and completely new areas of the state everyday in attempt to find good concentrations of ducks….there just weren’t any. The small pot holes were froze as of Wednesday, but thawing on our way home…..but that really didn’t matter as there were no ducks there to fill them in. Locals said it was the best early season they’ve had in years, but most ducks left a week+ ago…..should be more to fill in soon though I would imagine.
Goose numbers on the other hand were off da hook! Luckily we threw in a bag of snow goose decoys this year, because they seemed to have saved the trip. Spring like numbers and flock sizes in all the areas we were at.
Sundays hunt in the WIND was incredible. Weatherman said wind speeds of 30-45 gusting to 60 mph …..We had to put golf ball sized rocks in all of our silo-socks to keep them from blowing half way across the country. Sure kept the geese low though! Easy (<- understatement of the century) 3 man limit of little Canadas, 14 snows, and 4 ducks.
There seemed to have been one heck of a Snow goose hatch this year. Glassing the flocks showed a whole pile of Juvies!!!
Even though duck numbers were low, we did FINALLY stumble upon a roost lake holding a couple thousand mallards and ended the trip with one heckuva field shoot. 3 man limit plus a goose.
Nice Jake. Looks like a blast!
Just a tad bit jealous. Nice pics.
Great report…nothing like this big green heads….man I miss the bird hunting of the north dakota homeland, hopefully next year I can get back up there for some fowling
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