Posted By:
bigwoody2
Web Member
north kane county 11-16-2011 08:23
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plenty of birds still around, no pintails like boone county but full bag of mallards and canadas for the 2 of us.
Posted By:
Terry Wiseman
Guest
The Shoe 11-15-2011 19:43
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Took the 14yr oid and his buddy out sat afternoon for the youth hunt. I have never done this but after seeing all the mallards fri evenning i gave in. Him and his buddy had never killed a duck before but they both scored sat. Now thats cool and they prob will never forget.my boy ended up with 3 mallards and the other boy got 1 mallard. It was alot of fun to see it thru a kids eyes. They had several opertunities and just thoughly enjoyed it.
Posted By:
webmaster
root
Boone County 11-15-2011 12:31
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Quite a few birds still around even though the water is out of the fields. What we did see worked well — mallards and pintails for everyone (but no full straps).
No wind this morning made the early lookers difficult. Thing improved as wind picked up.
WInds to be WNW tonight and tomorrow. A much better wind for us than the SW we had today.
Posted By:
qacol
Guest
Desplains River- State Area 11-14-2011 17:46
Cloudy, Light Rain & Drizzle – 40-45 Degrees
Only had two wood ducks come close today, very few birds. Need some weather to get a push.
Posted By:
huntorski
Guest
Miss Pool 12 11-14-2011 16:12
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Hunted Sunday hoping stronger wind and lower pressure would keep the ducks moving.
Wind didn’t shift and pick up until after 10. Didn’t seem to help.
Saw high flyers moving south.
Not much wanted to work exept the pair of mallards that came in while I was moving decoys. How come ducks will flare on the slightest thing but come in with the pop up blind down and me in the decoys?
Still too warm and forcast for the week is the same as it’s been.
Posted By:
webmaster
root
IL Forecast 11-14-2011 11:29
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Just received this report from our state waterfowl biologist. Ray has been doing this a long time and his predictions are based on knowledge you can bank on:
I have reviewed the weather forecast for some areas of the continent that might indicate when to expect duck migrations. So far duck migrations in the IL river valley have been ahead of normal for early migrants such as teal and pintails and behind for later migrants such as mallards. The MS River valley has been behind for the most part but picked up recently. We were unable to conduct aerial surveys last week due to weather but hope to get some flown this week. Southern IL has been behind normal migration until recently as well. Last week we saw a good movement of ducks into IL but many mallards seem to be staying north for the most part.
Weather forecasts for this week look favorable for another good push of ducks south, including mallards. The usual rule of thumb for freeze up to occur causing migration is at least 3 days in a row where the average daily temperature is at or below 32 degrees. The average is calculated by adding the high and low temperatures and dividing by two. Here are some forecasts for average daily temperatures for the general areas where ducks might be staging that migrate through IL. Some ducks from Canada and the Dakotas may fly right to IL even though temperatures may not cause freeze up in Iowa, MN and WI. Others could head to Arkansas and Louisiana since it is getting late for early migrants regardless of temperature. Ducks tend to migrate at night with clear skies and north or northwest winds. They often leave ahead of a front.
Average Temperature Forecasts
Saskatoon, Canada
Today – 23, Tue – 15, Wed – 10 , Thu – 16, Fri – 7 , Sat – 4, Sun- 3
Looks like ducks in Saskatchewan will be heading south soon.
McClusky, ND
Today – 32, Tue – 23, Wed – 16, Thu – 26, Fri – 22, Sat – 14, Sun – 15
Ducks should be leaving ND as well this week.
Webster, SD
Today – 37, Tue – 26, Wed – 21, Thu – 28, Fri – 35, Sat – 23, Sun – 19
Same for SD for migration forecast.
Minneapolis, MN
Today – 41, Tue – 30, Wed – 28, Thu – 31, Fri – 38, Sat – 35, Sun – 27
Many ducks should leave this area by Fri but temps are moderating after that so many may hang up at this latitude for awhile.
Madison, WI
Today – 46, Tue – 39, Wed – 32, Thu – 32, Fri – 37, Sat – 34, Sun – 35
On the verge of freeze up this week but many ducks may stay in this latitude as well.
Ray Marshalla
State Waterfowl Biologist
Illinois Department of Natural Resources
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[Edited By webmaster on 2011-11-14 11:30]
Posted By:
webmaster
root
Boone County 11-13-2011 19:26
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Hunted sunrise to sunset again today just to try and figure out what the birds were doing. Water was receding in many of the grain fields and the birds worked over the fields they were feeding in yesterday and flared off when they discovered them dry — only to run off in search of more easy grain. Say half as many birds today as Saturday — but still no shortage of lookers.
Still, the birds would work a bit then run off. Was hoping the high winds today would change things a bit but no dice. When the sun came out if you touched a note on the call the birds would flare with scared wing beats.
5 ins after shooting while adjusting decoys for the next morning shoot, 2 goldeneye tried to land on me. I think they were lost. 😛
Showers predicted for Mon & Tues hopefully not enough to flood that grain again.
Posted By:
2footroper
Web Member
Bath IL 11-13-2011 06:08
Sunny & Clear, High Winds – 50-60 Degrees
First time we shot out for two days in a row. Hunted Friday and Saturday. Need wind to get these birds to work. We shot the majority of our ducks between 11 and 1:30. That’s because the wind was relitavly calm in the early A.M. hours of shooting time. With no wind they would look and work but never finish. Yea we might have been able to scratch a few high ones but I’m not into chasing cripples and educating new birds. Can’t wait until next weekend to get back at it.
Posted By:
webmaster
root
Boone County 11-12-2011 18:16
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Hundreds of ducks that wouldn’t work yesterday, today be came well over thousand today. In all my years I’ve never seen the amount of birds in our area that we saw today (and not shot at any).
Flooded corn bordering the Kishwaukee is holding incredible amounts of birds. If you’re not in that flooded grain you’re pretty much in for the biggest duck tease you can imagine.
Looking forward to the water receeding out of those fields so we can work ducks again.
Group sizes ranged from 30 to over 200 — mallards, gadwall, teal, widgeon and woodies. Biggest wood duck flocks we’ve seen in a long time.
Back at it tomorrow. At least it beats looking at blank skies. 🙂
Posted By:
webmaster
root
Boone & McHenry County 11-11-2011 12:32
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MARSH in BOONE CNTY: Took my youngest to the marsh. Water continues to rise could top waders in many places on the ponds (so up maybe 3ft above normal). A LOT more ducks today — all mallards and one large group of pintail. Started the morning untangling half the spread from a rouge log that was carried in the flooding through the decoys — lots of missed opportunity while this was going on. After the blocks were fixed, group after group of mallards worked the paint of decoys but wouldn’t finish. Birds were super wary. Ended with a few geese and a kamikaze wood duck that was shot in self defense.
MCHENRY COUNTY CUT/FLOODED CORN: My oldest and a few school mates set a field spread for geese and ducks. Limits of geese for everyone. They saw a lot of mallards (travelers and those that worked) — same issues, ducks worked and worked and worked and worked and didn’t finish.
Both groups tried everything from heavy, to soft, to no calling — each produced the same result. Every time they decided to go away a comeback would turn them around and they’d swing a dozen times just on the edge of range.
Back at it tomorrow in both places.
[Edited By webmaster on 2011-11-11 12:33]
