Continued snowfall in portions of the Mississippi Flyway has held snow geese south of their usual stomping grounds for this time of year. Snow geese that had drifted back into Arkansas in previous weeks have begun to move north again into southern and central Missouri. As should be expected, large amounts of snow on the ground has made it difficult to decoy birds with white decoys – that snow on snow thing is problematic at best for early migrators.
Hello folks, and, as always, welcome to Waterfowler.com.
A quick glance at the U.S. snow cover map will reveal the usual secrets of the spring migration north. Snow free portions of the central flyway have provided passage for light geese in Kansas and Nebraska, and the first flights have begun to arrive South Dakota.
Light goose numbers at Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge in Missouri remain low for this time of year but are on the rise again after the southern exodus just a few weeks ago.
In eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware, light goose numbers are decreasing as birds have begun to move into New York.
As we continue to monitor the light goose migration we remind our readers that any participant who posts a duck season summary or light goose hunting report during the month of March will be automatically registered in the Mallard Motel, March Madness Contest. During the first week of April a we will select a random name from hunting report participants and they will receive a FREE Mallard Motel as a thank you for their participation.
As always, out contest offers do not require a purchase and are void where prohibited by law. We look forward to reading your reports and entries during the coming month.
Until our next update, post a hunting report or season summary today.
Muscatine Iowa, Tuesday March 12th. Spotted 1000+_ snows/blues headed straight West at 2pm North of Muscatine 1 mile. Flying into the heavy snow and west wind. Hopefully there will be more to follow.
For us folks in Southern Illinois we have had a good snow goose season, with a brief warmup in early February we got some southern geese moving up and then a cold snap kept them here. A few weeks later a major snowstorm went north and west of us sending the birds back down for another round of big numbers. They stayed around again for the past couple of days but are slowly moving back north. Today we hit a few migrators with a warm wind coming from the southeast, it shouln’td be long before major numbers arrive points north up to the Dakotas. I am done chasing them for the year since I am leaving tomorrow for our annual trip to Jupiter and see the other birds in my life the Cardinals at spring training for a couple of weeks, good luck and stack em high.