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Awfully wet and warm up there this year. Birds had not even arrived (and probably won't for another 2 weeks) in mid-latitude SK and we were shooting Green-winged Teal on some of our hunts. Plenty of open water still......and grains crops still in swaths due to the rains during the last month. Farmers can't get in the field to get their barley or canola.

'First' for this trip - we hunted small pockets of shallow water in harvested canola fields the first week - ducks and geese were finding invertebrates and green chutes. Canola is not a favored food source for waterfowl but they were in there.

Pea fields everywhere but no birds using them......it had been warm and wet enough that the waste grain sprouted underneath the stubble. With so much grain in swaths, why grub for grain when you can walk down a swath full of it, and gorge yourself.

Every year presents another variable - this one was no exception.

We hunted three dogs - what a treat. Rip retrieved his first (and my first, in Canada) banded bird this trip.

So, if you have ducks opening day - I'm happy for you. Otherwise, I'm afraid the mass migration is still well-North and way behind. It is as warm up there as it is here, right now. Waterfowl have everything they need - they're not moving.

Happy Hunting!

Nat.. Been wondering bout ya. Missed your posts tremendously.. Thanks for the heads up.
Sounds like mississippi will burn'em up opening day.

Congrats on the band Randy. Post the band details when you get them.
Keep the info coming. Love your updates from the Great White North.

Thanks, y'all.

The mallard drake was full-plummed.
Hatched: 2016
Banded: 8/23/16 near Pinehouse, SK
Recovered: 10/25/16 approximately 400km or 270mi SE of the banding location - or 1700 miles NNW of Memphis.

If this doesn't give a fella an idea of how delayed the mass migration is - little else will.

When the jet stream dips at Seattle and then shoots up to NWT, then back down to Ontario - and sucks warm air from North Dakota into the Canadian prairies......it takes a major shift to make it dip down to Dixie.

Up there: High today was 48. Low tonight is to be around 30. High tomorrow 51. It takes 5 days of low temps around 17 and no daytime high temps above 38 to lock water up and force birds Southward to the next open water. There has been no significant snow other than to push less-tolerant birds (like snow geese) on down the Flyway. When you still see (and shoot) Teal in November at that latitude........it'll be a long season down here.

Winter will have to arrive quickly - and with a vengeance.

Congrats on the band!

sounds like another year of blue sky's and well blue sky's. You haven't missed it yet.

I hope Mother Nature hits with a vengeance. Not saying that in regard to the people having to live through it, simply my gain to push birds south!

Fighting cotton mouths on the 9th of November isn't a great indication that winter is here or even approaching. Hopefully a good system will push through and freeze everything up north of the Memphis tn corridor.

Being optomistic.

Thanks for the report, come on winter.

Three dogs, wow never done that. Tried two one time, too much work for me.

Great report. Catahoula has a crap ton of birds on it. I took both my boys and another youth and the were down at 7:22. They would have been done in ten minutes but wanted to wait on big ducks. Spoiled i tell ya spoiled rotten

Hey Randy, I meant to send you this video of the Gamefisher on the back of my canoe, but I was going so fast that I went to the future and just now got back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwJIPwYFteg

Man, that 1-banger is cookin'...... My Dad would be proud to that it's getting some use.

Thanks for the video - I had forgotten you bought that little motor. I like the tiller extension so you can balance the canoe. I've been there - done that! I imagine 'reverse' is a bit of a challenge, though. HA!

That pile of slabs though

Anatidae wrote:Man, that 1-banger is cookin'...... My Dad would be proud to that it's getting some use.

Thanks for the video - I had forgotten you bought that little motor. I like the tiller extension so you can balance the canoe. I've been there - done that! I imagine 'reverse' is a bit of a challenge, though. HA!

Reverse? Ha! The only thing sketchy as reverse would possibly be some hard turning. Nothing spells disaster like a prop pointed 90* to the gunwale of a canoe!