# Look out below!!!



## The Doob (Mar 4, 2007)

Hunting should be improving in southern Michigan as the thousands of redheads that were on wildfowl bay have migrated out. Tuesday evening we shot our 4 redheads and then had hundreds either land in the dekes or buzz the tower.

This morning we saw a fraction of the redheads that had been in the area for the last week. I think the first North wind we have had in a while has moved them down. We also saw/shot our first buffleheads of the year today. It will be interesting to see what we get here overnight.


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## GettinBucky (Jul 18, 2007)

She's pretty cold up north....below freezing nights and at freezing day time temp in Canada. Lots of new birds headed our way!!


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## Bills N Gills (Jan 30, 2013)

Thanks for sending them!!!!


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## SBE II (Jan 13, 2009)

I'll wait for the mallards to show in November, then it's time to get excited.


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## charcoal300zxtt (Sep 8, 2011)

Bring em on!


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## FPFowler (Mar 2, 2012)

I was afraid of that.......


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## Down River (Sep 10, 2009)

SBE II said:


> I'll wait for the mallards to show in November, then it's time to get excited.


Like


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## FISH NUTZ (Oct 24, 2013)

The Doob said:


> Hunting should be improving in southern Michigan as the thousands of redheads that were on wildfowl bay have migrated out..... This morning we saw a fraction of the redheads that had been in the area for the last week.


Been hunting there since the Southern Opener and have had LITTLE action from any Diver... I assumed that they were already south


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## Steven Arend (Jun 27, 2003)

Finally! Saw the first flock of flight ducks out over Lake Michigan skyline heading north, down here in the southwest.


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## fowlme (Jun 19, 2009)

Planning on Saginaw bay next weekend, hope we don't miss the boat.


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## SBE II (Jan 13, 2009)

FISH NUTZ said:


> Been hunting there since the Southern Opener and have had LITTLE action from any Diver... I assumed that they were already south


No, they probably aren't there yet. There's no reason for any birds to leave or to push. Nothing is freezing anytime soon, people see snow and they get all hyped up like birds are going to be like okay we're out. Maybe some woodies and teal...Mid November it will start, you MIGHT see it start a little sooner if this weather holds. But we do live in the midwest. This is speaking of course Z3 West side.


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## wavie (Feb 2, 2004)

GettinBucky said:


> She's pretty cold up north....below freezing nights and at freezing day time temp in Canada. Lots of new birds headed our way!!


Not sure where you are referring to (MB got cold but not for an extend time). Got an email from a farmer in Sask where we are staying next week and the first huge push of snows just arrived. Migration there is behind. Also mallards just started to show in larger numbers. Day I arrive next week is predicted to be in the mid 50s, with the rest of the week being in the 40s. Night time lows are just around freezing or below. Long term forcast doesn't show it getting COLD (single digits) til a ways off. 

I predict a huge influx of mallards on the west side the day after zone 3 closes.


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## FISH NUTZ (Oct 24, 2013)

SBE II said:


> No, they probably aren't there yet. There's no reason for any birds to leave or to push. Nothing is freezing anytime soon, people see snow and they get all hyped up like birds are going to be like okay we're out.


Thanks man! I was ready to pack it in, but maybe I will give it another shot... Maybe in a different spot- has Lake Erie seen any ducks yet? Sure is COLD out there though!!!!


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## SBE II (Jan 13, 2009)

wavie said:


> Not sure where you are referring to (MB got cold but not for an extend time). Got an email from a farmer in Sask where we are staying next week and the first huge push of snows just arrived. Migration there is behind. Also mallards just started to show in larger numbers. Day I arrive next week is predicted to be in the mid 50s, with the rest of the week being in the 40s. Night time lows are just around freezing or below. Long term forcast doesn't show it getting COLD (single digits) til a ways off.
> 
> I predict a huge influx of mallards on the west side the day after zone 3 closes.


Thanks for the dig..:cwm27:


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## just ducky (Aug 23, 2002)

Here we have it...the first "crystal ball" post of the season. Where are the flights? When are they coming? Have they already gone through? a little snow and the rumors start.


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## Timber (Jan 1, 2009)

wavie said:


> Not sure where you are referring to (MB got cold but not for an extend time). Got an email from a farmer in Sask where we are staying next week and the first huge push of snows just arrived. Migration there is behind. Also mallards just started to show in larger numbers. Day I arrive next week is predicted to be in the mid 50s, with the rest of the week being in the 40s. Night time lows are just around freezing or below. Long term forcast doesn't show it getting COLD (single digits) til a ways off.
> 
> I predict a huge influx of mallards on the west side the day after zone 3 closes.


After zone 3 closes i believe this to pretty accurate.

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## SBE II (Jan 13, 2009)

just ducky said:


> Here we have it...the first "crystal ball" post of the season. Where are the flights? When are they coming? Have they already gone through? a little snow and the rumors start.


Actually agree with you...Yea it's cold, earlier than usually..Whoopee..Birds can always eat unless theres 3 foot of snow and locked up water all around. Plenty of food and water, down in Peoria, IL guys are buying speck decoys and hunting those instead of Canadas now. They don't see a migration like they used to, birds dont have to push that far.


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## captain-p (Sep 30, 2011)

Saw a ton of divers off oscoda yesterday


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## carsonr2 (Jan 15, 2009)

I shot up flight birds on Sunday. Limit in a few hours, and the ducks I killed don't breed in my area of MI, so.......they must have migrated down.

I'd say the migration has started, new birds have moved in and we lost a lot of our local woodies which migrated out.

The migration doesn't last just a week or two. It will be spread over the remainder of the season for my area dependent upon species that move through.

I agree that the mallards have not moved in mass yet, but other species have started.


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## SBE II (Jan 13, 2009)

carsonr2 said:


> I shot up flight birds on Sunday. Limit in a few hours, and the ducks I killed don't breed in my area of MI, so.......they must have migrated down.
> 
> I'd say the migration has started, new birds have moved in and we lost a lot of our local woodies which migrated out.
> 
> ...


People shoot other duck species than mallards? What fun is that :evilsmile


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## FISH NUTZ (Oct 24, 2013)

just ducky said:


> Here we have it...the first "crystal ball" post of the season. Where are the flights? When are they coming? Have they already gone through? a little snow and the rumors start.


What is your prediction Mr. Sarcasm!


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## Shiawassee_Kid (Nov 28, 2000)

migration started last thursday here. my dads getting tired of cleanin birds, benefits to retirement i guess.


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## just ducky (Aug 23, 2002)

FISH NUTZ said:


> What is your prediction Mr. Sarcasm!


I don't make 'em, cause it varies each year, and it varies depending on where you are in the state. According to the DNR, we don't get much of a "flight" anymore in Michigan due to changes in the flight path for our flyway. So they would probably say we will get a trickle of movement over the next 3 weeks.

Bottom line is get out and hunt when you can.


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## dinoday (Feb 22, 2004)

Shiawassee_Kid said:


> migration started last thursday here. my dads getting tired of cleanin birds, benefits to retirement i guess.


I can't wait to have it so tough :lol:


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## SBE II (Jan 13, 2009)

just ducky said:


> I don't make 'em, cause it varies each year, and it varies depending on where you are in the state. According to the DNR, we don't get much of a "flight" anymore in Michigan due to changes in the flight path for our flyway. So they would probably say we will get a trickle of movement over the next 3 weeks.
> 
> Bottom line is get out and hunt when you can.


Shall we give him the support there's much of a difference in the migration just splitting the state down the middle? Hell Skid is talking about seeing pinnies at the flats..HARDLY ever see pinnies where I'm at..But when I go to NY and hunt the finger lakes, pinnies...


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## FISH NUTZ (Oct 24, 2013)

just ducky said:


> I don't make 'em, cause it varies each year, and it varies depending on where you are in the state. According to the DNR, we don't get much of a "flight" anymore in Michigan due to changes in the flight path for our flyway. So they would probably say we will get a trickle of movement over the next 3 weeks.


If it is just a trickle that you predict the DNR will say, then I will stay cozy watching football and Seinfeld reruns for the next 3 weeks! Come on November 14th!!!!


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## just ducky (Aug 23, 2002)

FISH NUTZ said:


> If it is just a trickle that you predict the DNR will say, then I will stay cozy watching football and Seinfeld reruns for the next 3 weeks! Come on November 14th!!!!


Hey why don't you ask a bunch of people here for their opinion? Better yet, create a poll here? :lol:


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## northern michigan boy (Dec 14, 2011)

I love when people say I limited in a few hours I saw ******** been hunting along time come close to limit but never there


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## carsonr2 (Jan 15, 2009)

northern michigan boy said:


> I love when people say I limited in a few hours I saw ******** been hunting along time come close to limit but never there
> 
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Assume you're talking of my post.

If you aren't shooting a limit a few times a season, you need to spend less time hunting and more time scouting. I came to the conclusion a few years back that if I was planning on getting out say 3 times a week, I was better off spending one of those days heavily scouting for two hunts as opposed to just hunting the 3 days. 

When I say scouting I'm talking putting miles on the truck checking a minimim of 4-5 water bodies scoping each from multiple locations. 

Personally I'd rather put in the time finding birds for two good hunts, rather than spending time on 3 mediocre hunts where you know there are some birds but are unsure of how many or where you should be set up exactly to be on them.

There is absolutely no reason in this state that almost everyone wouldn't be able to at least find a woodduck hole where limits can be shot as long as one is on target.

Of course no matter what a goose egg is inevitable at times, but I like to do what I can to try to not let that happen. I like to watch ducks, but I'd much rather lay into them for a pile of birds.



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## craigrh13 (Oct 24, 2011)

Regardless of anything that ever goes on the last 2 weeks of November will be great hunting.


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## northern michigan boy (Dec 14, 2011)

Well thanks for the great advice


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## quack head (Oct 23, 2007)

J.D. do you happen to have a link to the "change in flight path" from the dnr? Not calling you out, I would just like to read about it. 

Any who in regards to "not taking limits" its not often that I do but for the most part I attribute it to poor set up calling ect. I scout the hell out of the bodies of water in my hunting area. The problem I have is actually getting to the X. I think its a matter of working for it and not going half assed. At least that's how it is with me. I dont want to watch ducks from a distance and try to pull them down. I want to be where they want to be. 

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## just ducky (Aug 23, 2002)

quack head said:


> J.D. do you happen to have a link to the "change in flight path" from the dnr? Not calling you out, I would just like to read about it....


I don't believe there is anything that has been published by the DNR. It's just been discussed the last couple of years at CWAC meetings based on observations and discussions with other agencies in our flyway, and many of the DNR staff in the waterfowl programs agree with that thinking. Others who attend those meetings can also chime in, but what I recall they're saying is the flyway has changed in the last 20-30 years in many ways, as have the adjacent flyways. For example, the increase in water in the prairie pothole region since the mid to late 90's has led to birds "stopping short" on their way back north in the spring instead of going far up into the Canadian prairies. These same birds used to be much further north, and when fall migration came, they would eventually follow our Miss Flyway. But since they are breeding in the PP regions now, when these birds get ready to migrate in the fall their path follows the Central Flyway more. So we're missing a lot of those birds we used to see. That's just one theory. And this plays into the recent thought that we shoot mainly "great lakes" mallards now, versus 20 or 30 years ago when we may have harvested more true migratory birds. I recall they also pointed to the fact that we now have large numbers of oldsquaw staging in areas of the great lakes, where we didn't see them 20 or 30 years ago. 

These are some of the thoughts that they've passed along based on the flyway research. I really is interesting food for thought. Joe Robison talked a bit with our Shiawassee Flats Association earlier this spring about it. Since Joe Robison visits this site occasionally, maybe he'll chime in? Or one of the CWAC members who are more in-tune with the research?


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## Steven Arend (Jun 27, 2003)

I've seen Hundreds of flight ducks heading south along Lake Michigan skyline this morning. At about 11:15am I watched close to 300 in flocks of 30-50 birds go bye in a 10 minute span.

This sucks, seeing what I'm missing. I have 1 more week till I start my 2 week duck vacation.


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## Timber (Jan 1, 2009)

oh my their coming I saw them when I went for a ride in my airplane the other day.


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## twiliter (Jan 9, 2009)

An associate just got back from the UP yesterday and said he saw 0 divers in the straits area. Fellow hunters that have the big blind in Wildfowl Bay saw a large increase in divers after the big N-NW blow a week ago but things are slowing down now. The big push is still yet to come.
TWILITER.....>"){}}}}><


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## carsonr2 (Jan 15, 2009)

Fresh birds again this morning. Couldn't hit the broad side of a barn today, but still managed 3....should have had my 6.

Saw new BB flocks, some pinners, several large flocks of teal and some smaller flocks of buffies. No mallards besides the same educated locals.


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## Sparky13 (Sep 22, 2013)

Geese showing up everywhere in sw mi the last 3 days 

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## The Doob (Mar 4, 2007)

Noted some new birds on Wildfowl bay yesterday - the ones that come over way to high, take one peek and then fall out of the sky. Both groups that did that yesterday - one ringnecks and one redheads - gave up a finely colored drake of mounter quality. Also had one flock of scoters pile drive us head on and noted that more and more buffleheads are showing up. We shot horrifically as well but ended up with a nice pile on my daughter-in-laws' first ever duck hunt.

http://www.**************/albums/Dale-Stevenson/2013_10_25_12_14_13_648.jpg


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## Shiawassee_Kid (Nov 28, 2000)

twiliter said:


> An associate just got back from the UP yesterday and said he saw 0 divers in the straits area. Fellow hunters that have the big blind in Wildfowl Bay saw a large increase in divers after the big N-NW blow a week ago but things are slowing down now. The big push is still yet to come.
> TWILITER.....>"){}}}}><


yer associate lied to you.

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