Where are the birds....

Status
Not open for further replies.
Geese

I live along the Wabash river and can see the bottom wetlands from my house - this area fills up with geese once they start their trek......I haven't seen a goose or heard one.
 
Last edited:
I hunted one of our properties that's just west of Katy, Texas today. Wasn't a bad drive, 60 miles down I10 with a 75 mph speed limit. Took me about an hour and I stopped for gas. FINALLY, there were birds up until about 9:30. There were few teal, mostly big birds. I wasn't shooting particularly well, but still got a couple. One of the guys shot 5, the other 1, so the total was 8. The guy that shot the one didn't wanna mess with birds, so the other guy and I split 4 birds a piece.

Lots of redheads over there. I'm used to shooting redheads off the bay. The limit for 'em is only 2 and we shot 6. We mostly quit shooting because we had our limits of redheads. There were still ducks working around.

The other two guys don't call well, so they let me have the call duties. I particularly like calling, trying to work the birds, and they worked pretty well this morning. Good fun. Hoping it gets better, but I'm no longer zonked. I think this little front must have helped, but there may have been birds over in Katy all along, don't know.

Quite a few specklebelly geese over there. I worked a few flocks around, but we had nothing out to get 'em down. I think I heard ONE snow goose out of all the geese, everything else was specklebellies. So, nope, the geese ain't down here, yet.
 
I'm in Wisconsin and the waterfowl hunting sucked here as well. Maybe more northern birds will show now that we've got cold and snow.

As an aside this is opening day of gun deer season. It's cold with two inches of snow and there were spiders coming down from the trees.
 
First geese finally showed up here in eastern Nebraska today, just ahead of an ice storm.
 
Climate change?I did a little waterfowl hunting in PA 40 years ago.Limit was one goose per day.In this agricultural county we are overrun with them in suburbia.They foul the ponds and walkways in parks.Its easy to see a hundred in an industrial park.Last time I checked a few years ago you were allowed 15 Canadas a day in September and a late snow goose season in the spring on top of the regular season.They have become year round residents.Guys used to travel south to Maryland and Delaware for wintering geese.They stop short in this area now.
Click to expand...

Those office park geese are a separate population. They are the lazy new generation. They don't migrate, they don't fly in a "V" formation. You can hunt them with a golf club or your foot in some places.
 
Mc, got any geese yet. With the weather we are having at dfw, it would surprise me if you don't have lots more waterfowl down your way.
 
Haven't noticed any more, but not hunting at the moment. Usually, there's flocks in the fields between here and El Campo in the Garwood area. We go to church over in El Campo. Didn't see any snows today, only one flock of high flying specks. BUT, they'll be here, I have confidence! Another front is hot on the heels of this one.

Just picked up a doe permit. I'm going to have to go sit in my box blind, I guess, to try to fill it. :D But, I'll be goose hunting soon as I see we have birds in good numbers.
 
Cold? We're back in the 80's for the next three days here. (central FL).

My friends in Maine experienced 60F yesterday. Should be firmly in the 30's & 40's by now.
 
The snow geese seem to finally be filtering in, though the duck numbers are still low. I shot a couple of teal off one of our properties yesterday. There are 3 goose hunting fields, rice stubble, down there, and the geese started coming in about 8 AM and were still flying when I picked up at 9AM. There was a groups hunting the field next to the pond I was hunting and they were getting some shots. I'm starting to get a bit excited about the geese. Goose hunting runs through February, white geese, anyway, and if I get some good goose hunts in, I'll be happy. Time to break out the 10 gauge. :D
 
Our season is now over here in MN, and the birds never did show up. We've basically had the local geese, and early teal and woodduck and that's it. I miss the years of the flights of the big northern mallards that got all fat from the fields up in Canada...
 
MC, I'm still not seeing any more ducks here, but on Wednesday 23rd, saw a large flock of Sandhill cranes east of Waxahachie. Flying fairly high, heard them first, then saw them. They were flying south, don't know if they were migrating or just moving. Seems like they fly high anytime I have ever seen them. My brother feeds a lot of ducks at lake
Lavon, but it seems like the numbers are not up to normal winter time levels. However the lake level is still way high. Good shooting, I think the front coming in the next couple of days should get more down.
 
I know where the geese are now. They're all out back of my house! Couple hundred of them, easy, resting up before they move on, although with the weather south of here they might do well to stay a few days.
 
The strong El Niño forming in the pacific will dump lots of rain into CA but also changes airflow across the USA (at least from some of the cartoon graphics I've seen on the topic) leading to a more mild winter in the middle of the USA. I've only partially paid attention to the impact on the rest of the nation as I've been anxious to see lots of wet weather in CA since we've had 4 years of dry weather and drought and mandatory 25% water reductions. I hadn't thought of it impacting duck and geese but I suspect that's what went on. Please feel free to blame CA.
 
^ Accurate description in my experience. (And I deal with this topic professionally.)

The east coast has been sweltering this winter ... until now.
Down here, we'll keep the swelter -- still in the mid-80's next week.
My other home, however, is getting their first real snow on Monday and Tuesday.

Then, there were those tornadoes last week from 'Bama to Dallas. Hmm.
Couldn't have helped bird navigation. <-- topic

As for CA, yes, they're probably involved in this somehow.
But then, as a former OR resident, I like to blame them for pretty much everything.
 
We from finally got snow and cold weather here. Everything should be coming your way.
 
Wow, the Canadians still aren't around. Went out to the eastern part of CO, near KS border, and all there was were Snows at their migratory wintering spot. Ducks? Saw only a couple dozen where we'd typically see hundreds. Canadians? Saw less than a 2 dozen where we'd see multiple dozens at this time of year.

We typically expect less Canadian this time of year in this area but not virtually not existent numbers of them.

d2wing, where is "here"?

Thanks,
Andy
 
I've been saying for 20 years that if they would start the first split a month later we'd have a chance at killing some birds.....but the rules are meant to keep us from killing birds, so I guess they're working.
 
Drove from Dallas to Abilene on I-20 Friday the 1st. Ponds beside the road that I am accustomed to seeing lots of ducks on only had a few. Dove hunted near Stamford, saw a few ducks. We could occasionally hear some geese, but could not see them, they were most likely in a field upwind. Saw a bunch of sandhill cranes, landowner complaining about them as they mess up their wheat fields. Apparently they eat the seeds before they come up, and pull the whole plant up once they sprout.

Oh, we did ok on the doves, near limits on mourning doves, several collared doves.
 
I am in Minnesota. Most of the lakes are frozen over now. Still not real cold yet. We are supposed to get sub zero weather later this week. We want the ice to get thicker so we can drive to our fish houses on the lakes. Also so we can cross lakes on our snowmobiles.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

M
  • Locked
It's shaping up to be an epic season
Replies
0
Views
330
MCgunner
M
G
  • Locked
Bird hunting
Replies
10
Views
786
gspn
G
M
  • Locked
Morning of duck hunting
Replies
1
Views
386
Patocazador
Patocazador
M
  • Locked
Our national bird in Texas
Replies
6
Views
712
jmorris
jmorris
Armored farmer
  • Locked
Duck Season 2019
Replies
12
Views
495
the Black Spot
the Black Spot
Back
Top