Migration Reports

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Stay in the know on waterfowl reports and duck counts across the country with our Migration Map.

Our map is updated daily throughout the season, is interactive with various species and observable date ranges, and is completely free-to-use!

'23 - '23 Migration Reports

With the season drawing to a close, Mother Nature appears to have one last weather event in store. In this migration report, temperatures are dropping across the country, and a winter storm is set to hit the central United States—dropping snow from the Texas Panhandle all the way to Pennsylvania and New York State.

In addition to this snowfall and low temperatures, the freeze-frost line will make a southward transition into the southern states, and a multi-day north-northwest is forecasted.

All of this, coupled with the fact that a new moon occurs this week—which could knock ducks off of their nocturnal patterns—and we believe good opportunity exists for positive hunting success to end the season!

With the volatile weather going from bitter cold to unseasonably hot, we believe in this migration update, the stage was set (and still is) for weather-dependent back-and-forth trading in the southern portions of the flyways.

For example, at the top of the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley two dissimilar waterfowl areas—Ten Mile Pond Conservation Area in Missouri and Ballard County WMA in Kentucky—sit over 30 miles apart and yet recently have shared very similar trends in harvest statistics. At the beginning of the Holiday cold snap, hunter success was good while it lasted, but near-zero temperatures and hard north winds forced many of the ducks in the areas out. However, immediately after a warm spell began and what came to be a week-long south wind set in. During this time, both areas saw slow, steady, yet consistent increases to their hunter success.

Could it be a coincidence? Sure, but we believe this migration report is evidence of that when conditions are right—a warm spell immediately after a harsh cold snap—reverse migrations can occur sending ducks temporarily northward.

The Christmas holiday winter storm saw record lows across much of the country, with areas as far south as Oklahoma and Arkansas seeing sub-zero temperatures. Some areas in the midwest endured these temps for nearly a week.

As expected, many major river systems froze over, or were reduced to ice flows during this time, which had major impacts on the waterfowl populations in these areas. For example, areas in central Missouri lost nearly all of their birds during this time to warmer areas further south, and while its certain some returned with the warming trend, weather events like these make for major migration events as areas in Kentucky and southward all reportedly picked up new birds in higher concentrations.

With rain on the horizon, we believe early January could yield decent hunting success across all four flyways for no reason other than much-needed access to new food sources, and new habitat.

Happy New Year! Stay safe out there.

On the heels of last week’s winter storm, which left a fresh blanket of snow across much of the northern states, a new cold front is moving in bringing with it some of the coldest temperatures in nearly a half-century. States as far south as Oklahoma and Missouri are bracing for sub-zero temperatures. For context, the last time it was this cold in central Missouri, the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers froze.

With this in mind, we bring good news to the southern states of the Mississippi Flyway with this migration report, as it is highly likely a large migration event will occur as the concentrations of birds staged along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers in Missouri and Illinois face pressure to move further southward.

Before we sign off, we’d be remiss if we didn’t say, stay safe out there friends. With temperatures this low, frostbite and hypothermia are serious threats to the hunting community. Stay safe!

A large nation-wide winter storm is set to hit this week, with the northern portions of all four flyways expecting major snowfall and the southern states of the Mississippi Flyway expecting some much needed rain.

Following this winter storm, a week-long cold snap is set to settle in, causing prolonged sub-freezing temperatures in areas of major waterfowl concentrations including the Platte River, Missouri River, Illinois River, and the upper extents of the Mississippi River.

With all of this in mind, we believe this migration report is about as good as it gets, and that a large migration event is likely to occur across all four flyways, with the highest potential being for a new push of birds into the southern states of the Mississippi and Central Flyways. But as always, Mother Nature always sets the rules, we just play the game. Good luck everyone!

With a warm trend on the horizon for much of the central and southern United States, duck hunting could get tough. Plus, a full moon may cause the ducks and geese to turn to nocturnal patterns, making hunting conditions even more challenging.

Fortunately, this migration report isn’t all bad news—a good portion of duck migration and goose migrations occur at night. So while the full moon might hinder local hunting conditions, it could be favorable for migration events. Plus there is supporting winds down the Ohio River into Missouri, Kentucky and Illinois as well as into the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays from New York and Pennsylvania.

Overall, we believe the migration outlook over the next week is below-average, but who knows… Mother Nature always winds up surprising us with a migration report of her own—and hers are the ones that matter!