All I want for Christmas is cold weather and the waterfowl migration moving south

The waterfowl migration continues to be stuck in the rut of unseasonable weather!  A couple of the Fowled Reality crew grinded out an all day hunt at the club Wednesday and barely came home with anything other than a full stomach.  We saw very few ducks in the air throughout the course of the day.  What we did see, was mostly between 11 and 1.  They're educated and knew where they were going.  We continue to see ten of thousands of snow geese every hunt and they're active throughout the day. Southern Illinois is also holding a good number of Specks.  It seems like their numbers have continued to climb the last few years.  We were even lucky enough to take an immature speck yesterday during the middle of the day.  Had it not been for him, we wouldn't have fired a shot!

Yesterday, we went out for a few hours hoping the north wind and sub freezing temps would bring some birds south, but it didn't.  We only saw a handful of ducks and saw next to nothing on the lake and refuge.  The Canada geese continue to chow down on grass and have no need to fly out to feed. Without a a prolonged cold snap, the waterfowl migration isn't going to bring us many more ducks before the season ends.

The Illinois DNR didn't fly surveys this week due to the bad weather.  From what we've seen and heard, there hasn't been much change in numbers since last week.  There is still open water and now snow up north and excess of rain from southern Illinois and Missouri down through Tennessee and Arkansas.  The ducks that are down here on the Mississippi Flyway and scattered everywhere and this will continue for the forseeable future.  We'll continue to drive everywhere we know in search of birds.

Regardless of having huntable numbers of birds or not, now is the time to re-prioritize. We've hunted hard the first 6 weeks of the season and have had some great hunts and some bad ones.  Tis the story of waterfowl hunting.  None of these hunts would be possible without our wives and family.  They're the ones that support what we do, help with watching the kids, and have dinner waiting when we get home.  They're the ones that make it possible and for the next few days, it's time to put up the guns and cameras and spend time with them over the Holiday.  Being stuck south of most of the birds with the lack of weather we've had makes these next few days a little easier to take, but it will be nice to have a break.  Now, that's not to say we won't go out of our way while traveling to family functions to check a local lake or pond just for future reference!  Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Come on snow send the waterfowl migration south!!!

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