Skip to main content

Manager's update

Last week in review

January 11-19, 2026 

Weather

Unseasonably warm temperatures recently thawed impoundments and brought a lot of rain. Immediately after, cold temperatures once again froze impoundments for the most part. We received around 2 inches of snow, just enough to cover the ground.

Waterfowl abundance

Bird numbers have fallen drastically, but a few are starting to trickle back in. Warm temperatures and thaw allowed birds to spread out, and while it was expected that some would move back north (which some did), the majority moved farther south. We should pick up a few more birds with the coming cold, but don’t expect huge numbers until later in the season when we could potentially get reverse migration of birds heading back north.

Hunting conditions

Corn cover is dwindling with snow, freeze, rain, thaw, repeat. Corn was not great at the beginning and is worse now. Plan on some sort of blind to aid in hunter cover.

Hunter numbers

Hunter numbers have been low. Saturdays are busiest with 10–15 parties. Sundays and Wednesdays have very low party numbers.

Waterfowl harvest

Harvest has been very slow. A bird here or there is being taken.

What to expect this week

Temperatures will again warm into the 40s but are expected to drop once again, bringing freezing temperatures and snow.

Upcoming events

N/A