Minnesota Waterfowl Hunting

No I'm not dead yet... Yeah it's been over 5 months since I've posted up. Life happens.

Spring has sprung. The 1st pair of Honkers was seen locally in the West metro yesterday.

Going into Winter, many ponds and small sloughs were dry to very low for water.
With the over 6' of snow here + the 2 rains of 2" this past month, there is hope we'll get some water back into the wetlands. But there is so much snow, many areas never froze, so a lot of the moisture is slowly sinking into the ground to recharge the severe draught condition soil in the SW metro. Which is a good thing, but there won't be as much run off to recharge the wetlands. Over all we've seen improved to much improved drought conditions

Will we get the fabled March blizzard in March? Or the 3 tornadoes in S MN like 6 yrs ago March 6th? We shall see.

If you gave not gotten out to do Wood Duck Box and Mallard Hen Nest maintenance over water, I suggest not waiting as the ice is highly variable this winter in the Metro. An ice chisel is mandatory, as are ice picks around your neck to get yourself out if you go through. As I've found many places with zero ice under the snow drifts.
How bad is it? A friend of mine, over 1/3 of his WDB over water he could not get too because of such poor ice conditions. So best get at it and be safe about it.

Wright maps MN 4 months ago to current.

US 4 months ago and current.
The Dakota's are hurting pretty good yet.
Hopefully there is a widespread blizzard with 2+" of precip to help the ducks out.

Canada has not fared well this winter to recharge the moisture. A few parts of AB and SK has gotten better, but parts of AB & SK, and all of prairie MB (the duck factory) have gotten worse. Bottom line is they have not gotten the big snows this winter to help reverse the widespread drought. This does not bode well for returning ducks unless major snows happen in next 6 weeks.
Canada is always behind in reports. Most recent is end of Jan.

Photo is the amount of water in the snow pack as of end of Feb.

Last night I had 7" of heavy wet snow.
A big storm brewing for end of the week, like 7 to 12" range.
That'll be pushing 8' of snow for the season by me.

The despair is starting to kick in. I feel like it will be forever until I can do anything enjoyable outdoors for a while and there have been nothing but cloudy days in the forecast all week. This is big depressing.

I'm.not depressed yet I'm feeling better and better. Highs in low 30's way better than zero. If winter holds on like last year might lose my shiz, but I'm ok waiting another week. I think we get through this next storm things will start turning up. We'll be mid March in another week and avg highs near 40...hang in there will be glorious hopefully

End of March avg highs like 50 that's what always keeps me pushing once we get to march. Last year was massively depressing cause I built March up so much and was pretty much just another winter month lol

My mental state is a lot like the winter survival of animals. It seems the cold and brutal weather in January and February should be the worst, but animals are usually fine in those months. It's when winter extends in to March and April that they start dying, just like my generally positive outlook on life.

Glad to hear the h2ofwlr is alive and well!


.....and actually admitting for once that his dire drought prediction was inaccurate and premature. It's mighty big of you there old friend!

[Two Thumbs Up]

My buddy who has to follow all the long term forecasting for his job told me we are supposed to have a cold and wet March and April. Great news!

Heading south a time or two in the winter greatly helps late winter depression. I have done it the past couple winters and it is like a mental refresh. I highly recommend if you can swing it.