October brought ice and November came in with mosquitoes, and the weather is once again shuffling the deck on the 2002-2003 waterfowl season.
Hello, folks, and, as always, welcome to Waterfowler.com.
Just when the Northern tier was ready to call it a season Mother Nature changed her mind and brought back warm weather and open water, but her mood seems fickle as another series of cold fronts begins to slide down out of Canada. So don’t pack up your gear just yet, a window of opportunity may still be open before the water locks up again.
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And now, on to the Migration Report.
PACIFIC FLYWAY
The best reports for the Pacific flyway continue to come out of Oregon and Idaho. Wet weather in Washington State was more than welcome but did little to improve the hunting in the eastern half of the state. Wigeon numbers made a sharp rise in Oregon this past week and hunters’ success followed the curve in many areas. In southern Oregon and Northern California Snow goose numbers are building. The Snake River continued to produce good mallard shoots and should keep doing so as the next weather system moves in.
Bird numbers on the lower portion of the flyway are still spotty, but reports of fat northern birds have started to trickle in out of Nevada. As yet another Pacific storm moves in this week the flow of birds should increase and bring betters gunning all along the flyway.
CENTRAL FLYWAY
Last week’s warm up had hunters in the upper most reaches of the flyway hoping for a return to better shooting as some waters opened back up but it looks like the flight has moved south. Highest Migration activity for ducks in the Central Flyway is centering on the mid latitude states while light goose numbers are nearing high levels in the Katy Prairie of Texas.
The approaching cold front, or fronts forecast for the next week should move most of what remains, waterfowl-wise, out of the Dakotas and Montana and begin to stack up strong numbers of birds from Nebraska southward.
On the far southern end of the flyway too much rain and warm weather made for less-than-hoped-for shooting opportunities. With untold acres of open water in south Texas, what birds are in the area have spread thin and made patterning difficult.
Cooler, dryer weather should help over the next week and falling water levels will concentrate the waterfowl that are in the area and give new arrivals less chance to escape notice.
MISSISSIPPI FLYWAY
Warm weather was the big factor this week for waterfowlers in the Mississippi Flyway as well. Though many Northern sloughs opened up in the balmy weather, best success for puddle ducks in the northern tier was still in cut grain fields. Diver numbers have stayed high and are continuing to build on the larger open bodies of water and hunters around the Great Lakes report better than average shooting on their big water spreads.
Mid-latitude states saw a lull in their action as the mercury climbed. Though both duck and light goose concentrations are good, birds are becoming more wary and hunters are having to work extra hard to bring the flights into range. At the southern end of the flyway it appears that the warmup may have sent many of the puddle ducks back north. Last week’s reports of heavy concentrations in rice fields of North Louisiana didn’t hold up as the warm air moved in. South Louisiana was also plagued by water that served to scatter what birds had made it that far south.
As another cold front rides down the Mississippi River Valley this week a fresh push of birds should follow close on its heels. By early next week sloughs in the upper end of the flyway should refreeze and aid in moving birds back to open lakes and rivers and down the road to the southern states.
ATLANTIC FLYWAY
Sea ducks are once again the main story for the upper east coast. Puddle duck numbers inland have been up and down over the past few weeks but the goose numbers look to be on a steady rise.
Mid-coastal states have seen a slow influx of waterfowl but are still waiting for “the big push” as the holiday season draws near. Storms over the next few days will make conditions tough but the cooler temperatures behind the front should increase both waterfowl numbers and activity.
Southern Atlantic Flyway hunters report a steep increase in teal and wigeon in the area with a mixed bag of divers starting to raft up on large open water. As the series of cold fronts move down the continent, waterfowl numbers should begin to climb for the lower end of the flyway just in time for the Florida opener.
Well, after an October that felt like December, this past week’s warmup was not the most welcome or expected weather for waterfowlers. Once again we were reminded that Mother Nature has a mind of her own and is not beholden to our weather forecasters in any way. But as fall weather returns this week another ray of hope shines in the hearts waterfowlers everywhere, and no doubt sleepless nights will be had as the hunters of the lower portions of the flyway await their openers. Until next week, remember: the only guarantee about weather is that there will be some.
