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  #31  
Old 09-10-2018, 12:26 AM
32-40win 32-40win is offline
 
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Seemed about normal for opening day weekend, pretty fair bunch of Specks around, we shot a barley field, we were done in 1/2hr for four of us. Ducks didn't show on that field, We had the north end of a 1/2 section, some other guys took the south end and set up in the wrong spot, 200-250yds too far east on the field. We felt sorry for them, we'd given them a choice of which end of the field they wanted as it was big enough for that, and there were plenty of birds on it. Not sure they fired 10 shots, and there were 5000+ birds there. No idea why they set up where they did. Birds hardly even looked at them and came in hard on us.
12yr old on his first hunt, got a banded Speck, and his first limit on Sat.
Shot a peafield today, we were lazy and spread a bale pile into a sort of a blind, it worked, we shot like krap though, still did alright. Lots of Specks around, 4 nice balls of pintails. Saw about 300 honkers in a field to the south of us on the way out. Fields are being cleared in a hurry in that area. lots of barley off, peas are done.
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  #32  
Old 09-11-2018, 10:17 AM
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Looking better every day out there. more and more birds showing up, and with the weather going the way it is, should be fast coming now. Have a buddy coming up for annual hunt---come on geese!
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  #33  
Old 09-13-2018, 10:09 AM
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Awful weather around Edmonton. All the ponds and roosts were empty, birds in the fields this am, sure not seeing much movement in the air though.
Pretty near everybody here say they move great in this weather, sure doesnt seem like it though, pretty quiet.
Buddy coming up from out of town for annual goose hunt, I'm happy to go out in crappy weather if the birds are too, have to cross my fingers!
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  #34  
Old 09-13-2018, 12:24 PM
elkhunter11 elkhunter11 is offline
 
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Saw at least 50k geese between Saskatoon and Lloydminster this morning. One field had at least 10k snow geese, and several other fields had thousands. Plenty of white fronted geese and Canada's as well.
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  #35  
Old 09-13-2018, 02:32 PM
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Originally Posted by Justfishin73 View Post
Awful weather around Edmonton. All the ponds and roosts were empty, birds in the fields this am, sure not seeing much movement in the air though.
Pretty near everybody here say they move great in this weather, sure doesnt seem like it though, pretty quiet.
Buddy coming up from out of town for annual goose hunt, I'm happy to go out in crappy weather if the birds are too, have to cross my fingers!
Unsettled weather means unsettled birds that change their patterns. When hunting feeding geese on fields, I prefer stable weather to unsettled, simply becuz the geese are more predictable.
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  #36  
Old 09-14-2018, 09:31 AM
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TON of snow geese showed up last night south of Edmonton--of course all in 2 fields I cant get permission on.
Nice little flock on my pea field this am, till 3 damn coyotes came ripping out of the bush. Luckily my .243 was in my truck, got 2/3. Guess hitting coyotes this weekend instead of geese.
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  #37  
Old 10-02-2018, 09:22 AM
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A lot of birds in the air this morning around south Edmonton, probably all the Calgary birds fleeing the snow! Most of their usual fields were empty, going to make cornering a spot this weekend tricky. They seem to be all over the place. Weather looking grim towards the weekend, maybe they will be out feeding more now.

Am I the only one who has noticed they seem to be favoring the wheat over peas in a big way this year? Odd, but I’ve waited for my turn at this pea field for two years---now they wont come…
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  #38  
Old 10-02-2018, 01:21 PM
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Upland hunting south of Oyen....lots of specs around,few snows and a few canadas.
No big flocks of mallards but lots of puddle ducks
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  #39  
Old 10-02-2018, 02:00 PM
MyAlberta MyAlberta is offline
 
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Upland hunting south of Oyen....lots of specs around,few snows and a few canadas.
No big flocks of mallards but lots of puddle ducks
How are the chicken numbers? We left Rosetown last season with lots of birds to over winter. Not as many Huns as I’m used to though.
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  #40  
Old 10-02-2018, 02:44 PM
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How are the chicken numbers? We left Rosetown last season with lots of birds to over winter. Not as many Huns as I’m used to though.
Numbers are not good for sharpies or huns....
Lots of sloughs are waterlogged,maybe thats part of it.
More water around there last few years than when I was growing up...
Deer numbers were low as far as we were concerned too
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  #41  
Old 10-02-2018, 04:11 PM
elkhunter11 elkhunter11 is offline
 
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More and more specs here, quite a few larger flocks of mallards showing up. We passed on a flock this morning because four Canadas were coming in low right at us. We had a flock of sandhills fly over our spread this morning. Good numbers of snows, and smaller groups of local Canadas.
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  #42  
Old 10-02-2018, 04:16 PM
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More and more specs here, quite a few larger flocks of mallards showing up. We passed on a flock this morning because four Canadas were coming in low right at us. We had a flock of sandhills fly over our spread this morning. Good numbers of snows, and smaller groups of local Canadas.
Sandhill cranes.....theres a bunch south of Oyen too,more than Ive seen in a while
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  #43  
Old 10-03-2018, 03:23 AM
32-40win 32-40win is offline
 
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I got some good news tonite at least, this heavy snow didn't go very far east, apparently didn't make it to the Red Deer river. Seeing people posting snows are still north of Lloyd, still specks up around Peace River area, and Beaverlodge. Some reports of snows showing around Wainwright.
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  #44  
Old 10-05-2018, 09:33 AM
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Combines running full steam around here, tons coming off daily. Sure making it hard to lock down a field as they are leaving old fields for new feeding grounds. Tons in the air moving. Lots more ducks in the fields with the water being frozen over in the AM.
Managed to get into a 1000+ head virgin field for the weekend—just loaded. Wonder how mad she will get if I hunt all three days this weekend…..
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  #45  
Old 10-05-2018, 11:07 AM
elkhunter11 elkhunter11 is offline
 
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Scouting last night and this morning, far fewer geese in my usual area, but I found one field with 1000 geese, but even those are playing musical fields, and may end up in another field where someone else has permission. Will scout again tonight to see if that field is worth hunting in the morning. Seeing more and more ducks the last few days.
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  #46  
Old 10-05-2018, 10:06 PM
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Lots of geese, mainly Canadians but with some specks and snows between Hilda and Schuler on highway 41. I would say between 1000 and 2000.
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  #47  
Old 10-07-2018, 02:53 PM
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Snow up north brought tons down today. Limit in 45 minutes, great day. 100% sold on the willow blind.
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  #48  
Old 10-07-2018, 08:35 PM
Redneck 7 Redneck 7 is offline
 
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Limited out yesterday for 2 guys, then we woke up this morning to a bunch of snow. So we decided to drive and scout, our usual flocks of 1500-2000 geese was down to 100. So they’re moving a little farther south, that was just east of Abee 13 miles.

Next shoot I’ll do will be in the Wainwright area.
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  #49  
Old 10-12-2018, 09:50 AM
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After that snow last weekend, everything cleared out around south of Edmonton. Saw a nice flock of specs wednesday--ghost town since then. Tons up north to come down still, warm weather next week should help.
Glad doing pheasant this weekend, can still get out
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  #50  
Old 10-12-2018, 10:29 AM
elkhunter11 elkhunter11 is offline
 
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One huge field of snows, one good Canada field, but other than that, far fewer geese than a week ago. I didn't see a goose until 8:30. Hoping the Canadas keep feeding in that field until the morning, so we get in a hunt.
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  #51  
Old 10-12-2018, 12:38 PM
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It doesn’t help much but I saw a huge cloud of ducks - yes it was a cloud! I would say probably 200-300 birds flying across the Henday west.... they were flying low, maybe 40-50 yards....
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  #52  
Old 10-13-2018, 07:23 PM
Diesel_wiesel Diesel_wiesel is offline
 
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in this area of south central Saskatchewan if the birds keep leaving like they have the last couple days there wont be a bird to hunt by Wednesday
saw a total of 16 geese today yesterday the fields were loaded with birds and the sky's were loaded with high fast flying birds today and inch of snow and bitter cold north east winds had the birds flocking south big time
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  #53  
Old 10-13-2018, 07:27 PM
elkhunter11 elkhunter11 is offline
 
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We saw plenty of Canadas from our blinds today, and some came to our decoys, but we saw flock after flock, after flock of snows up high, and headed South. I didn't see or hear a spec today. We did have one Sandhill crane come in and land close to our spread, which surprised me. And a bald eagle flew over our spread as well.
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  #54  
Old 10-13-2018, 07:50 PM
32-40win 32-40win is offline
 
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Went up last Sunday, wasn't sure what we'd see. I went my usual route scouting, so did two other guys. We usually come up with three possible shoots. I had seen nothing worthwhile until I went out of the usual area. Found a big bunch of snows on water. Saw some big strings heading south from that area. Followed them, then they turned east and hit a peafield finally. We had snows coming from 3 roosts again, but some were travelling about 12mi for feeding. Two out of three were not the usual roosts. There was some snow on Monday, the birds worked swath for the rest of the week, in an area of 4 sections of land. We had about 20-30,000 mixed birds at the first half of the week, then the numbers started dwindling, and a fresh batch showed last nite. I watched 3-5000 snows head south at altitude this AM. We could hear the specks flying at 4;00AM a few time this wk. Ponds are freezing up unless they are deeper water. There was a 20 mile stretch that had next to no geese in it, that usually has tons. We did Ok, but it was a grind.
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  #55  
Old 10-13-2018, 08:19 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Diesel_wiesel View Post
in this area of south central Saskatchewan if the birds keep leaving like they have the last couple days there wont be a bird to hunt by Wednesday
saw a total of 16 geese today yesterday the fields were loaded with birds and the sky's were loaded with high fast flying birds today and inch of snow and bitter cold north east winds had the birds flocking south big time
TON of birds up north still, could be good late if weather holds
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  #56  
Old 10-14-2018, 08:48 PM
MyAlberta MyAlberta is offline
 
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Originally Posted by madatter View Post
Numbers are not good for sharpies or huns....
Lots of sloughs are waterlogged,maybe thats part of it.
More water around there last few years than when I was growing up...
Deer numbers were low as far as we were concerned too
Just back from Rosetown and it was opposite. Tons of chicken, deer every where, and many ponds dried up. Saw up to 300 chicken on the cold blustery day, then maybe a doz on the Sunny day. Fair for the Huns.
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  #57  
Old 10-15-2018, 04:12 PM
32-40win 32-40win is offline
 
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Was Tues or Wed nite I saw 6-7 flocks of huns, most going back into standing canola crop, coming out of barley or oats. 4 were in about a 3 mile stretch. One spooked when my buddy pulled up to talk to me, as I was doing the watch on a goose shoot, they were in the ditch about 20yds from me, hadn't noticed them. Slough on one side, swath grain on the other, farmyard behind me.
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  #58  
Old 10-16-2018, 09:43 AM
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Justfishin73 Justfishin73 is offline
 
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Thousands of birds in the air. They sure don’t want to commit to any one field though, all running around like 14 yr olds at their first dance---don’t know what to do. Sure making it hard to lock down a field for the weekend. Have one very hilly field they are going through, but not landing. I know they don’t like all the hills, might just have to pick the tallest one and hope for the best.
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  #59  
Old 10-18-2018, 09:40 AM
Grousegetter Grousegetter is offline
 
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Default Warm weather

Anyone noticing birds changing behavior with this warm weather? I am going to scout tomorrow but have been noticing the birds that roost near where I live in Edmonton seem to have migrated. The roost went from thousands to maybe 100. Thought they would be more likely to stick around with warm weather.
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  #60  
Old 10-18-2018, 10:18 AM
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Justfishin73 Justfishin73 is offline
 
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Yeah, they sure aren’t making it easy. With a so many new fields coming off, they are jumping around every day. Did finally locate a great field after my two hour drive every morning, but cant get any contact info for owner.
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