This week's western Pennsylvania waterfowl migration report from Avery Pro-Staff member David Rearick:
Date: Dec. 29
Location: Mercer
Weather: Cold with a warm-up followed by more cold later this week.
Snow cover: None, all the snow has melted with the warm weather and rain.
Water conditions: Flooded in some spots. Rivers and creeks are high, but most water is open.
Feeding conditions: Good, lots of food in the wet areas as well as in the higher fields.
Species and numbers: Fair numbers of ducks for this time of year and good numbers of Canada geese.
Migrations: Some ducks are pushing through with new birds arriving before each small front. With the open water, they seem to have stuck around making good opportunities.
Season stage: Late season.
Hunting report: The hunting has been decent, but the birds are somewhat unpredictable, feeding some days and going water to water the next. This makes things tough but not undoable for those who are scouting and patterning the birds.
Gossip: Not much to speak of as of yet, hopefully as the weather starts to turn a little colder the action will heat up and the birds will be feeding in fields more regularly.